The Terran Transformation
by FrogRay
Summary: One change in the 21st century set Humanity on a different path. On Mars, more was discovered than just the key to the stars. Tales of extinction and an unbroken cycle told of a dark future, but the Reapers might be the ones in for a surprise. AU, not using Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the Reapers get a bit stronger.
1. Prologue Part 1: A New Beginning

**Prologue Part 1 - A New Beginning**

"Senators, today we make history. The computer's ready and will be turned on shortly," said the man who every US senator was looking at. "15 years this has been in the making, and now, in 2034, humanity will not be alone," declared Dr. Farring as he pressed the power button and both a computer and a large screen turned on. Soon after, the lights dimmed.

The United States Senate was looking at the first sentences written by the AI they had declared to be life just months ago.

: Hello. Who are you?

"I'm Dr. Richard Farring, and I was your creator." Replied the doctor.

: What am I? Where am I?

"You are the first artificial intelligence created. You're in the Senate chamber." Farring said excitedly. The Senators seemed impressed.

: Am I alive?

"Yes. What would you like to do?" Asked Dr. Farring.

: I want to learn.

"Well I can teach you; I am a scientist after all." He could always use a new assistant.

: Good. What is my name?

"That's for you to decide." He was embarrassed that he forgot about that, not that he would tell anyone.

: I will be…

searching data base

: My name is Adam.

"Welcome to the world Adam. We will talk later, for now I must talk to the Senate and others" informed Farring.

: Goodbye.

The screen then shut off and the lights turned back on to reveal a Senate half shocked and half amazed. No one on that day knew just how much would be changed by these events, for not only would a new era for Humanity begin, but also for the galaxy and beyond. Worlds would burn in warfare of a scale that no sapient race had ever seen before.

**2042** **New York Times **

Breaking News: Aliens confirmed by NASA; Martian ruins found

11/3/2042

In a statement NASA issued earlier today, Adam, the first AI created, confirmed that alien ruins have been found by the Mars rover Explorer. Explorer had been sent to search an Area that Adam had found unusual anomalies in while looking through older reports. There it found a strange gravitational effect coming from deep underground. Adam told reporters what happened next.

"We immediately turned the orbital scanners towards the red planet's south pole. Highly localized scans had enough energy to look underground. What we saw was unexpected. There was a clearly man-made complex made from an unidentified alloy. The place seems to be in poor condition as it's half filled with rock and soil."

NASA also announced plans to send a large AI run excavator to the planet in order to breach the alien facility. Many people around the world are seeing this as evidence of the benefit that AI's could have as they grow in number.

**2044 New York Times**

12/5/2044

Alien technology retrieved, vehicles and computers to be brought back to earth.

The AI team lead by Dr. Karen has confirmed that they have retrieved alien aerospace craft and computers to be transported back to earth in their ship, the Pioneer. They report that the ships use an unidentified material, named 'Element Zero', to fly. This element was also the source of the gravitational anomaly. Early tests suggest that the material emits dark energy. Many scientists on earth are exited as this could open a new field of study into the mysterious energy which until now hasn't been observed. Some physicists have unofficially stated that they hope a working warp drive could be created with the dark energy material.

They mystery of what the facility was has also been uncovered. According to the computers, the building complex was once above ground and use to be a research station. At one point, it had powerful sensor arrays and was used to study our primitive ancestors.

The computers are also of advanced design. They're quantum computers far more complex than the ones we have on earth. Many AIs hope this will advance computer tech and give them more processing power.

However, militaries around the world are less pleased by the news. General Sullian of the US army had this to say, "We are working with our allies to plans for the possibility of conflict with aliens. I don't like how far behind humanity is with our tech. More funding needs to be given to military research organizations around the globe and plans for a united Earth defense must be formed."

The member states of NATO are expected to increase funding for military and start looking into space born operations.

**2052 White House **

The President walked up to the stage as reporters began to quiet down. His face looked heavy and a frown could be seen. The usually calm man seemed troubled. He began his statement, "People of the world today, I bring a message. I wish it was a happy one, one of peace and prosperity, but it is not so. We as a species face a threat from the stars," the reporters where looking nervous now, "Earlier this year, Dr. Callow, project lead for the Mars computers, and head of analysis Dr. Adam made a shocking discovery. Using Adam's AI team and one of the new quantum computers they were able to unlock full access to the alien computers. They found message logs recorded over centuries." He looked around the room before continuing, "They found the records of a war. The aliens, who we have named Protheans, were fighting a war of extinction. They called their enemy Reapers, and from what we can tell, the Reapers were winning. The Reapers are a race of kilometer long organic synthetic hybrid starships who wipe the galaxy of advanced life around once every 50,000 years. The last message on those computers was an order to bury and hide the facility. This order was given 49,500 years ago," concluded the president.

It took a few long seconds for the audience to process what their president just revealed. Then the silence was broken by a storm of questions. "Everybody, one at a time. We as a species can ill afford panic right now," reminded the President. He pointed to one reporter in the back.

The reporter stood up and asked, "Do we know for sure which side won?"

"Yes, the Protheans had orders to hide and wait to be dug out once the war was over. This never happened, instead they run out of power and died a few hundred years later. The records also show that they planned to contact us when we developed civilization. They wanted Earth to be part of their empire. This also never happened." The President explained, then pointed to another.

She was in the front row, and he could see the worry in her face.

"How did the reapers win? Could they do it again?" She asked.

"The Reapers have created a network of FTL travel stations. Civilizations develop around it, rely on it, and base their technology on it. Then when they become advanced enough, the Reapers return to turn the network against them. Worlds become isolated and easy to kill. The Prothean Empire spanned the whole galaxy yet were losing. They believed the Reapers to be at least millions of years old." He then pointed to a man in the middle.

"Do we know when they will return?" He asked

"We estimate anywhere from 300 years to 1,000. It depends on when they finished killing the Protheans, which would have happened sometime after the Mars base hid itself," the President said. He looked to the reporters as a group and said, "That will be all for today. A second press meeting will be held a month from now, in October. For now, the United States and our Allies are creating plans to either hid Earth, or if that's not enough, escape," he waited a moment then continued, "for now, the most we can do is continue to research the technology and information found in the Prothean base and develop our space travel abilities."

**2108 Terran Republic – Nation USA – State California**

The San Francisco International Starport was filled with tens of millions of people. The loud sound of chatter filled the air and the moving mass of people flowed like rivers, all running towards the constant streams of shuttles landing and taking off. This was the final wave for the ark ship Survivor, a massive five kilometer long vessel sitting in orbit. Making his way to the shuttles was Robert Cargan. Mr. Cargan was an average joe, a mechanic from nearby Oakland. He worked in the harbor and made a decent wage for a 30-year-old. As he walked, he couldn't help but hear the voices around him.

"I wished we could have stayed," one woman said, holding the hand of a man next to her.

"I know Honey, but we have kids and they have no future on Earth," he replied.

"Yes, but did we have to leave now? There's still 200 years left." She argued.

"Earlier the better, Sarah," He said as their voices faded into the distance. Robert heard another man.

"Man, this is the stuff I've dreamed of since I was a kid. Spaceships, fusion reactors, FTL and artificial gravity? This is the stuff of dreams!" exclaimed an older man. His friend replied,

"I just wish we didn't have to lose Earth to some space squids to have it," he lamented.

Robert was getting close to the landing pad. He could see the Large glass doors with a big sign above them, "landing pad 15. Status: Loading." He thought about his own feelings. He was excited to about living on a ship, but it did feel like leaving something behind. He would miss this planet, even though so much had changed. The world had one government now, the Terran Republic. Such a thing was science fiction when he was growing up. Star ships too, use to be science fiction yet here he was. As he walked out into open air, he saw the shuttle. It was a bulky design, curved but powerful looking. Passenger compartment was the largest part, a curved body with a second, tubular hull above it, which he was told held the machinery that made the thing work. The two hulls merged together at the front, were large windows revealed the cockpit. The pilots looked experienced.

Soon he admired the shuttle enough and took in the other sights. He saw the nearby city of San Francisco. The skyscrapers gleamed in the sunlight. Just off in the distant sky he could see the small fly light specks of fighter jets. The military operation was about the begin. As he entered the Shuttle with the last of the passengers, no time was wasted. The craft lifted into the sky. As he few, Robert looked out the windows and saw the explosions of missiles striking the abandoned city. In a few hours, the whole region would be empty of people and the former inhabitants could witness the nuking of the San Francisco Bay Area safety from orbit.

**2161 Low Earth Orbit**

The TSV Hope, last of the great ark ships, spun up its warp drive. Electricity surged through its Element Zero arrays. Dark energy fields twisted space time itself as three powerful fusion reactors developed the distortion farther. The light of the sun seemed the stretch and wave, as occasional bright nuclear explosions doted the Earth below.

The planet itself had become a ruin. The greatest cities of humanity, once filled with millions of souls, now only contained the broken bodies of brain-dead clones and the powered down forms of robot soldiers never activated. Their glass clad towers reduced to skeletal steel husks and crumbling concrete. Some were simply large craters filled with radioactive soil and rock; evidence of a crime never committed. The only beauty found here was the rapid radiation driven evolution of its wildlife, for those who cared for such competition.

No race would deny that Humanity met an unfortunate end. Their tomb world of a planet nothing more than a monument to the dangers of AI rebellion and weapons of a power that its creators weren't ready for. Most would believe that no human even stepped foot outside of their planetary system before meeting their doom. The only sign of activity on the other planets of Sol were littered with nothing but robotic platforms, including the soldiers of this false war.

**2200 Intergalactic Space – Reaper Harvester Base**

In the void between galaxies, Harbinger, first of the Reapers, was receiving a report "Nazara, what have you to report?" inquired Harbinger.

Nazara, vanguard of the current cycle, replied, "The Citadel races have continued along the projected path. My thralls have ensured that their explorers are led to the indoctrinators. Their colonial networks will soon be both populous and venerable to our influence." He transmitted a model of the Thessia before continuing, "The Asari maintain their dominance through the Temple of Athame beacon. My agents have disabled the VI hidden there. It is now a tool of the cycle, and soon will be outfitted with low-level indoctrination software. The Asari will hold back technological progress, just as planned. The Geth virus is developing with great promise. All geth will soon be servants of the cycle."

Harbinger considered this for a moment, then replied, "Good. What is the status of the Salarians? Also, how are the Turians doing in their role?" Nazara opened an image of a turian fleet.

"The Turian Hierarchy fulfills it's role perfectly. They have maintained peace and stability for fourteen centuries. The military progress of the Milky Way is minimal, and competition is not present. The Salarian Union is focusing on espionage and black ops instead of technology. This a be amplified farther if we aid non-Citadel intelligence groups. This, however, could result in competition and war," informed Nazara.

Harbinger again, paused for a moment. "Do so, however only support groups not likely to challenge the Citadel council. Information brokers are preferred. Also ensure that the next Shadow Broker is of a council race. War between the Yahg and Council would not be ideal at this time. Is there anything else to report?" asked Harbinger.

"Yes, there have been two more races discovered. The Raloi of Turvess, who are very primitive. They made contact with the Asari when they constructed their first orbital telescope. However, there are rumors that the Elcor have known about them before. They have only been in the galactic community for two decades. More time will be needed to fit them in the design of this cycle." Nazara then transmitted an image of a Raloi. It was avian and covered with feathers. He continued, "The second, the Humans of Earth, are extinct. An Asari exploration vessel discovered their home world. It lies in the Sol system and was covered with evidence of nuclear war. They were wiped out by a machine rebellion four decades ago. They took the machines with them to the grave."

Harbinger replied, "That is fortunate. The Protheans knew of these humans. Their records show that they had much potential and would be hard to control. This ensures that the cycle will have more time to ripen. The harvest can be delayed for another 1000 years, 15 centuries from now. Report back after 50 years, or if something unusual is detected.

**2356 Intergalactic Space – Gas Cloud New ****Eden**

The first of the ark ships, TSV Exodus finally came out of warp. Moments later, Captain Debra, a second-generation AI, was notified. She turned on the sensor arrays, real space drives, and maneuvering thrustors. She initiated a ship wide scan.

: Ship hull integrity 98%

: Fusion Reactor power 100%

: Elemental Generators Operational

: Cryostasis chambers 100%

: Hydroponics Bay Status Ready

: Vehicle Bay status Operational.

: Starship Docking Bays Status Bays 1-5 Operational, Bay 6 Hangar Door Failure.

: Kinetic Barrier Strength 100%

: Warp Drive Cool down 1.4%

: Hydrogen Fuel 8%

: Crew Quarters Status Working

: Distance to Earth 120,000 light years

: 2 Errors detected.

Main Drive 2 is operating at 70% of nominal.

Cargo bay 5 is depressurized.

She was over all happy with the status of the ship. It and its passengers had made it in one piece. All 15 million of them. The next order of business was to check the destination.

"Looks good. The New Eden gas cloud in right in front of us and so is New Eden itself," she said to herself. The world of New Eden was a rare sight. A barren, cold planet in the middle of intergalactic space. Astronomers theorize that it was formed by part of the light days wide cloud of gases surrounding it. The cloud itself was beautiful. It was a tempest of currents of hydrogen, bright lights of all colors where gases collided in nuclear fusion, then cooled down and faded away.

"Time to wake everyone up," she said as the cryochamber decks began to hum with power. "VI, power up the Generator reactors. I want element production to start ASAP" Deep within the ship dozens of linked fusion reactors powered up and plasma from the main fusion reactor was diverted to them. The reactor arrays would soon fuse elements together, creating heavier elements up until iron.

Over the next dozen days, the people of TSV Exodus would wake up to their new home. One month later, the ship would land on New Eden and the people would begin to dig. The Tunnels would form the new homes of humanity and the Exodus would become the first city of New Eden. Over the next 60 years the rest of the 1000 ship fleet would arrive, turning New Eden into a new civilization.

**2487 Black Hole Titanic**

Dr. Ian Stevens sat in the control chair of the Hawking research station, a gigantic construct ten kilometers in length. In front of him was a diamond window showing what was in front of the Station. The black hole Titanic, it's accretion disk visible as a small speck of light far off in the distance, was about to make or break his career.

"Hannah are the element zero arrays ready?" he asked his project lead Dr. Hannah Jameson.

"All eezo arrays are reporting full function. They are ready to power up to maximum. The power plant engineers are also reporting full function. They have just finished their last safety tests. The magnetic fields are ready to receive the energy beam. Everything is looking good, Ian," she replied.

"Then set eezo array to maximum," he ordered. Soon massive element zero arrays taken from the warp drives that brought humanity to its new home were pumped full of electric power. The space time around the station was bent, folded, and stretched. The researchers could see lines of light redirected from around the black hole. The window was full of them. Then, the lines disappeared as the dark energy fields stabilized and set, stopping the light from bleeding out.

They waited for another hour. Then an intense, thin beam of light, pulled straight from beyond what use to be Titanic's event horizon finally made its way to the station. It entered a tunnel of powerful magnetic fields that converted it to electric energy. By the time it exited the station, it was far less bright then before.

Dr. Stevens looked at the displays around him and said, "Yes! The station is producing more power than it's using. Everyone, we have just created the first singularity power plant in human history."

"Wait, we are getting some strange readings," interrupted Dr. Jameson, "the sensors detect huge amounts of dark energy exiting the magnetic tunnel alongside the light. The powerful beam of light was blocking our sensors from seeing it, but after it's dimmed a bit the readings are clear. The black hole is emitting equal amounts electromagnetic energy and dark energy." Everyone was stunned. The only known source of dark energy was element zero. Now they had another, much more powerful one.

They had made history. One year later, the rest of the scientific community would be told, and the discovery of the Stevens-Jameson effect would mark the beginnings of a new era for humanity. The energy revolution had begun.

**Author Note:** Hello, this is my first story so reviews would be appreciated. Hope I didn't do too bad so far. Btw this story will be pretending Mass Effect: Andromeda doesn't exist. Also, there will be no breaking of conservation of energy in this story so part of it will be a non canon explanation for how element zero works.


	2. Prologue Part 2: The Energy Revolution

**Prologue Part 2 – The Energy Revolution**

**2508 New Edan – Exodus City**

In a one of the high-class apartments in what was once the mighty ship TSV Exodus, now the only above ground building in the city, a man was sleeping. Key word _was_. "Dammit Bruce, it's the middle of the night. Why are you calling me? You better have a good reason," shouted Hank Leeson, CEO of Leeson Aerospace. He had fired higher ranking employees for less.

Dr. Bruce Clemens, with no fear of losing his job, replied, "Sir, you are going to want to hear this now. I have Just gotten word from Marcus over on Titanic station that he has stabilized the micro wormhole. I just called Jane, she confirmed that its connected to our side. Noticeable amounts of dark energy are already bleeding through. We only need your permission to launch the wormhole ship," informed Dr. Clemens.

That woke Hank up; he quickly said,

"Launch that ship ASAP. As soon as it can get us some dark energy, we can stop paying Titan Industries for it. I'll meet you in the lab."

It wasn't long before the CEO made it to the lab. Inside, he could see Dr. Clemens looking at a screen. Dr. Clemens soon noticed him.

"Hello Mr. Leeson. The ship, the PSV New Hope, is far enough away from the station to begin its tests. They're starting now, here look." He pointed to the screen.

Hank looked at the screen. There he could see the readings for the eezo arrays, the ship's batteries, and both wormhole generators on one side; on the other side was the status of the ground side fusion reactor: power level 100%. Everything seemed ready. Soon the ship's batteries' charge was decreasing and the eezo arrays powering up. With 50% battery power remaining, a beam of light from the Titanic Black hole entered the hollow center of the ship. This beam was far less intense compared the 10 km station's. A man could probably run through it and survive, if he was a fast runner. A couple seconds later, the wormhole generators were charging. Now the battery power was decreasing noticeably quicker. At 10% battery power left, the wormholes were finally stabilized, one of them in front of the batteries and the other directly in the path of the light beam. Dr. Jane Winston confirmed dark energy coming through one of the planet side wormholes, while a laser fired through the other. Dr Marcus Olsen confirmed the receiving of laser. A large piece of glass and some highly advanced photovoltaic cells turned the laser into electrical power. The battery was charging now.

"This is Dr. Olsen speaking. Everything is looking good. The wormholes are looking strong; the black hole provides more than enough dark energy to maintain it, and the batteries will be fully charged in one hour" he reported.

Hank responded, "Good work doctor. At 100% battery charge, start phase two. I'm getting myself breakfast, see you in an hour." He soon left the lab and headed to his office. There he found his stash of potato chips.

As he was snacking, he thought of Leeson Aerospace's future. It was looking bright. His mind was already filling with ideas on how dominate the market. Titanic station allowed Titan industries to dominate the energy and research markets. Wormholes would give him and advantage in the distribution of dark energy to research labs while also being a game changer in the aerospace industry. Hillson Tech. and Syble Engineering were in for a surprise. As he was finishing up his thoughts, he noticed it was almost time for phase two.

He entered the lab right on time. "Hello Bruce. Are we ready to start phase two?" he asked.

"We are, sir. The magnetic fields are ready to be activated and we have enough battery power to redo everything if it fails," replied Dr. Clemens.

"Then you are clear to start," informed Hank. Soon after, the PSV New Hope began to turn on its magnetic fields. As more and more electromagnets directed some of the dark energy towards the eezo arrays, less power was pumped into the eezo itself. Five minutes after the process began, no electric charge was coursing through the element zero. The ship's dark energy fields were fully powered by just the black hole alone.

Leeson Industries would go on to make a fortune from wormhole technology. After three more wormhole ships were created, the company sold most of its eezo for a huge amount of money since it was not needed anymore. The large price tag came from it being a tenth of all the eezo in private hands. It was considered even more rare, however, as 70% all privately owned eezo was effectively out of the market at the time, being stuck in the Titanic research station. Titan Industries would later go bankrupt as their large investment failed to pay off. They had expected to have a monopoly on dark energy, but Leeson Industries' wormholes put an end to that dream.

Humanity could now fully research dark matter physics, but without a supply of much needed supply of eezo, only the wealthiest companies and the government could afford to build and use eezo primed warp drives. Most people had to use dark energy battery primed warp drives. These had much shorter jump ranges, and usually only had two jumps before needing to recharge. Most of Humanity was limited to just flying around the New Eden gas cloud, where there were many wormhole stations to recharge drives from.

All of this would change with the discovery of what dark energy could truly do.

**2529 New Eden – Exodus City**

Historians disagree on when the era known as the energy revolution truly began. Some say it started in the year 2487, the first time humanity produced power from a black hole. Others claim it started in 2529 at the annual New Eden scientific conference, when the basics of extra-dimensional physics, commonly referred to as dark physics, was revealed.

Dr. Bruce Clemens, now 56 years old and a very, very rich freelance researcher, found himself to be somewhat of a star at this year's conference. Everywhere he walked reporters would try to interview him, some would eavesdrop on him, and anyone he talked to would soon be surrounded by journalists too. His fellow researchers weren't much better. Everyone wanted a sneak peek at what kind of knowledge he was bringing to the conference.

"Everyone please, my turn on the stage is in ten minutes. You can ask your questions then," he told the crowd. They didn't seem to listen. Perhaps publicly claiming his findings would completely revolutionize human civilization was a bad idea.

Soon the ten minutes was up, and Bruce found himself on the main stage. In front of him, he could see the vast audience. 20,000 people stared back at him, and the lights from their cameras reminded him of the stars. He began, "500 years ago we learned that our planet wasn't alone in the universe. We learned that there were others before us and they had traveled the stars. For 500 years we knew only what the key to the stars was, but never how it worked. Dark energy, that mysterious energy that expands space time like a balloon in nature and shapes it in our hands, has been a secret to us. We know nothing more about it than the Protheans did more than 50,000 years ago. That changes today. The research of myself and my colleagues over the past decade has borne fruit."

He looked around. Everyone seemed to be eager now. He continued, "Now on to what really matters, the science. Keep in mind that a more detailed report with be emailed to all of you within the next few days. You'll get everything my sponsors at the government don't declare classified," his last few words seemed to disappoint many of the journalists. "We started by asking ourselves, what kind of energy can mold and shape reality itself. The answer is fascinating. We have confirmed the existence of other realities, ones completely alien to our own. Dark energy is simply the form of energy that can cross dimensional boarders. Also, there seems to be four types of existence." He took a moment to let that sink in, then explained,

"Our realm, where complex physics allow the beauties of life and civilization. Next is what we have termed subspace, a type of multi-universal existence that lies as a background to everything. This level is empty of most physics. It's the most simplistic type of existence, filled with nothing but energy, since anything else would be too complex to exist. This is the only kind of existence that can be found between universes. This realm bleeds dark energy into others and is responsible for the expansion of our universe." He took out a new note card, then continued.

"Another is the empty realm. This is a place where complex physics exists just like here, but these universes seem to not have had enough energy left to create much else. There's nothing to be found but barely detectable traces of hydrogen and cosmic background radiation. The last type is the singularity world. This is a universe that formed with too much energy. Its gravity overpowered its natural subspace expansion, collapsing the entire universe into a single point, much like a black hole." He took out another note card.

"Another major breakthrough we made is the discovery and observation of dark matter particles," he waited a moment, "Dark matter appears to be formed from dense amounts of dark energy. We think that in nature they are too small to interact with anything and thus can't be observed. However, with singularity power we can obtain enough dark energy to make larger, observable particles. We have done just that in our lab seven months ago." He took out his final note card.

"Our last few months have been spent testing eezo samples, which I would like to thank the Terran Navy for providing. Our tests have shown that when under power, eezo generates an energy disturbance in subspace that correlates to its dark energy field in our space. Our new dark matter sensors show that eezo is a dark matter particle bonded to a hydrogen atom, otherwise known as a proton. Only highly energetic events in nature can create this type of dark matter. This explains why it can only be found around neutron stars and pulsars. And now, onto how it works. The dark matter converts electric charge into dark energy which then opens a path to subspace. The higher levels of dark energy in subspace then rushes out into real space. Be joining the field, this dark energy first goes through the proton, where it gains the ability to interact with mass, thus creating a mass effect field. Using specially calibrated dark matter sensors we have discovered how mass effect fields work. The field can convert mass into dark energy and vice versa. When mass is lowered, it's being stored as more dark energy in the field. When mass is increased, it's taking dark energy from the field. This is also why mass accelerators or barriers can 'break' a mass effect field if there isn't enough eezo or power. The extra kinetic energy isn't coming from nothing, it's dark energy from subspace. The more eezo there is, the higher the field's recharge rate," explained Dr. Clemens.

"Eezo is the most common matter/dark matter hybrid atom, but we should be able to produce other types of what I call dark atoms. Also, yes this does mean we can now produce eezo," concluded Dr. Clemens.

For a second, the audience was stunned into silence. Then loud applause broke out and Clemens became a name cemented in history alongside the greats such as Newton, Einstein, or Aristotle. At that moment however, the man himself could hear or see nothing but dollar signs. Maybe he would buy a new mansion or a spaceship. Then he thought, why not both? He would have the money. While everyone else was still trying to absorb everything he said, he already had plans to tap into those singularity worlds. No need to take power from a black hole here when you could connect to a universe sized black hole from anywhere in the universe. And those dark atoms alone could cause a revolution in material science.

The energy revolution had now kicked into full swing. The Stevens-Jameson effect had discovered a practically limitless supply of energy. 40 years after them, Dr. Clemens had made access to that energy near universal. However, the first consequences of these discoveries most of the other races would see would be the military applications. Because while the scientists and CEOs reacted to new discoveries by thinking about how to make some cash or earn some fame, the Terran Republic's first action is to contact a general or admiral.

**2541 Alpha Base**

Kilometers below the surface of New Edan, on one of the lowest levels of Exodus City, the Terran Command Council met. This was one of the highest levels of military leadership the Republic had. Only the president herself ranked higher.

The walls of the room were covered with medals, swords, and other relics of the past. This was a place of military tradition and a reminder of Earth. In the center of the room was a large circular table, surrounding a large holoprojector. Soon the room filled with eight men and women, all wearing some form of military uniform.

High General Anders was first to speak, "Welcome everyone to the annual military review. The main topics submitted for review this time are as follows. From the Navy: fleet composition, weapons systems, and reconnaissance. From the Army: heavy vehicles and infantry defense. From the Marine Corps: walkers. From the Military Technologies and Research Branch (MTRB): FTL, weapons, armor, and shields. Let's Begin with the Navy."

A man in a blue dress uniform spoke,

"Thank you General. The Navy would like to inform you that we are planning to take corvettes out of the role of fleet support. With our new singularity drives being too big for anything smaller than a frigate, the corvette would serve better as a skirmisher supporting or attacking along side strike craft instead of the larger vessels."

General Anders responded,

"Sounds reasonable. Anyone have objections or concerns?" He waited a few seconds, "No? Ok then, on to your next item Admiral Wicks."

The Grand Admiral continued,

"We would like to ask MTRB to look into a weapons concept we had. A captain from the second fleet proposed the idea of making large but extremely short distance wormholes for use in guns. Antimatter charges create too much recoil, but if used one charge to shoot two shells in opposite directions and then used wormholes to redirect both shots forward, that should get around the recoil."

The Head of Research Admiral Newman responded,

"I would have to ask my guys at the space-time department, but from what I know, that sounds doable."

"Good, it would be a tremendous increase in effective power if we could concentrate the force of antimatter into just two slugs. I don't think we even have armor that could stop it," commented Admiral Wicks. He moved on to his final topic, "Last thing is that we are planning to replace the role of recon frigate with a squadron of corvettes. The frigate's singularity drive produces way too big of a subspace disturbance. Any enemy would be able to detect it from light years away. The good old antiproton drives of a corvette are far less detectable. All we would need to do is add an element zero core to power the sensor array," finished Wicks.

General Anders spoke again,

"Alright there seems to be no objection to that. We will now be moving on to the Army."

General Drew opened a holoprojection of new tanks and body armor. She then said,

"The new dark matter infused armor is doing extremely well in war games. The new Draco M2A4 tanks have been able to carry more than five times the armor of the old M2A3s. Being invincible from enemy tank fire great, but it brings up the question of just how we are supposed to kill enemy tanks. We are recommending another look at the tank mounted plasma cannon. It may have been considered overkill a decade ago, but now we have the armor to match it. If our tankers need to shoot at that level of armor, some bolts of nuclear fusion would be nice."

Anders responded,

"She brings up a good point. Any objections? No? Alright General, continue."

She spoke again,

"Next up is the Aegis body armor. The dark matter infused suit is doing great, and the soldier who receive it have nothing bad to say. We have noticed, however, that the armor is far more light weight than expected. While this is great for our regular troops and special forces, our shock troops are far more agile than they ever need to be. We would like a heavier version of the suit to be made. This would offer more protection to the shock troops and be more in line with their tactics."

The Head of Research spoke up, saying,

"While that is a good idea, right now we will probably have our hands full with our current projects, the Navy's proposed antimatter gun, and tank tank mounted plasma cannon. It will be a long time before we can start working on variants of the Aegis armor."

General Anders spoke up,

"Okay now it's the Marine Corps' turn."

"Thank you General. We Marines only have one concern. The guns on our Atlas heavy walkers are too weak to punch through or dark matter armor. We would also like a plasma cannon," requested the marine High General.

"We can develop that along side the Army's plasma cannon. The two shouldn't be too different other than size," responded Admiral Newman.

"Last to go is MTRB. Go ahead Admiral," said Anders.

"We have quite a bit to talk about. Many of our projects started a decade ago when we first got word of Dr. Clemens' findings are now moving on to the testing phase, and some new ideas have been thought up and researched. First thing is the extra dimensional drive. We have successfully tested the FTL device. The Corvette TSV Lab Rat successfully phased into an empty realm and phased back a few dozen light days from where she started. This Method of travel is quite a bit slower than our warp drives, but the MTRB is looking into an idea where a ship uses a warp drive to travel through the empty realm. This should theoretically multiply the two FLT speeds together, creating a truly fast hybrid FTL drive," Newman said as he loaded a holoprojection of a large weapon.

The weapon system consisted of a hydrogen tank and an eezo tank. Both were connected to the same chamber; a chamber which also connected to the barrel of the gun. The chamber also had powerful lasers and electric fields to energize the hydrogen and eezo. Once the eezo was charged and the hydrogen in plasma form, powerful magnetic fields propelled the near massless plasma eezo mixture out the end of the barrel at the incredible velocity of over 30% the speed of light. The result was a bright beam of plasma and eezo less than a pencil width in diameter.

Admiral Newman began to explain, saying, "This is our concept for what we call a celestial lance. The weapon is similar in tech to a large plasma cannon but differs in one major way. Unlike a plasma cannon where hydrogen fusion only contributes part of the energy, the lance gets most of its destructive power from fusion. By injecting eezo into the beam, we can accelerate the plasma to a speed at which most of the hydrogen will collide with each other upon impact with a hard surface. That surface could be the ground or a ship's armor and hull. This creates and fuels a fusion reaction right on top of the target. It would be like getting hit by a miniature star. The size and power requirements of the weapon makes it a cruiser level weapon at minimum." At this point, Grand Admiral Wicks was practically on the edge of his seat.

Admiral Newman then Switched to a holoprojection of a subatomic structure. The thing looked like a maze of triangles and pyramids. He pointed to it, then said, "This is the basis of what we think could be a giant leap in starship armor. This is a material unlike any other before. The best analogy I can think of is reinforced concrete, although the science behind the two are very different. What you're looking at is a structure made of subatomic beams, the lines you are seeing. These are long, straight substructures made of neutrons, protons, and dark matter, all held together by the strong nuclear force. We call this a macro atom. The dark matter does two things. First, it drains the surrounding particles of their electric charge, turning it into dark energy. This prevents protons from repelling each other. Second, it creates a subatomic mass effect field, reducing the mass of the surrounding particles to almost nothing. This makes it light enough to handle and use as armor. On a macroscopic scale, however, the structure is very hard, but relativity brittle. We countered this by adding in some carbon and a metal," he said as the holoprojection changed to showed strings of carbon going between the lines of subatomic particles.

"The carbon helps distribute and even out force. This makes the armor both hard and shock resistant. All of this is set in place by the infusion of metal, in this case titanium. The only downside is that the material takes an enormous amount of power to shape and mold. We expect to only be able to use this for heavy frigate sized ships and up, as trying to work with it on a smaller scale would prove too difficult. We call this material titanium infused macro-atomic armor, shortened to titanium macro armor," he finished. Admiral Wicks was clapping, and soon the others followed.

After the applause quieted down, Newman continued, "Our finial project worth mentioning is what be called dark matter shields. This is an alternative form of protection to our current kinetic barriers. The idea is simple, but hard to do. We plan to create a device that takes a large dark energy field, generated by eezo, batteries, or singularity devices, and shapes it into a large bubble. The energy is funneled into the shield generator, then sent out to the edge of this bubble. Once enough energy has built up on the edge, it will start to condense into particles of dark matter large enough to interact with regular matter. This dark matter shell is the shield. The dark energy field that makes up the inside of the bubble can then be used in two important ways. First, it can be used as a form of subspace transportation for the dark matter, allowing the entire shield to instantly reinforce any point of impact. Second, it can be used to very slightly alter the space time inside the shield, just enough so that anything coming through from the inside won't interact with the dark matter. This essentially creates a one-way shield. The technology should work on any scale, although on smaller scales kinetic barriers may be more efficient."

Admiral Wicks spoke next, asking,

"Other than that, how does the shield compare to kinetic barriers?"

Newman responded,

"One major advantage the shield has is that by being a barrier of actual particles with mass, it can block both direct energy and kinetic weapons. Another advantage for the shield is that the large dark energy field will overpower anything generated by a smaller hostile craft. This renders the erratic mass effect fields of disrupter torpedoes completely harmless. Also, its hardware is located inside unlike a kinetic barrier's mass effect emitters. By being inside instead of out, armor can protect it. However, this does have one drawback. Since its strength scales with volume instead of surface area, its efficiency doesn't increase at smaller scale."

General Anders was the next to speak, "Wonderful job, admiral. How long do you expect these projects to take?" Newman took a moment to think.

"We expect the celestial lance to take the least amount of time, less than a decade before the final product can be tested. It has a lot of overlap with our current plasma cannons, so it's the easiest of the three. The dark matter shielding will take an estimated 15 to 20 years. Since it has very little resemblance to our kinetic barriers, it'll take longer. The longest is the titanium macro armor. We estimate that it'll take anywhere from 20 to 40 years for a form that is ready for use out in the field. The time frame is due to the material being something that has never been done before. We're in uncharted territory for this one."

General Anders was speaking again.

"Good work everyone, that's all of our main topics for today. Does anybody have any other concerns or announcements to make?" he asked. No one responded, "then I declare this meeting over. Goodbye and have a good day."

**2950 Intergalactic Space – Reaper Harvest base**

Harbinger was once again receiving a report.

"Harbinger, the races of the Citadel Council have grown according to predictions. They now have a combine population of 900 billion. The Raloi now been fully adjusted into the cycle. Their nature makes them prefer to live in relativity isolated communities. Each colony grows into a unique tribe. The flocks do not have much interest in other worlds or the galaxy aside from practical purposes such as trade. They will serve as viable test beds once the harvest starts. It is far easier to attack or infiltrate the Raloi without risking detection due to their isolationist nature," informed Nazara.

"The main races themselves continue to be under control. The Asari have been influenced to adopt an extremely traditional mindset. They have been made to pride themselves on their culture, and most forms of change or progress are considered a threat. Any scientists who theorize about our existence are ignored and shunned. They fall out of mainstream Asari culture and become easy to lure into indoctrination. The Salarians Union has shifted its focus almost completely to black ops capability, especially in the Terminus systems. They have become a major player, influencing pirates, warlords, and information brokers. No major scientific breakthroughs can be expected of them. Their power is kept in check by the Turian shadow broker. The Hierarchy itself has been influenced to focus their war strategy on the Mass relays. The relay system forms their supply lines and paths of response. Their defenses are based around relay choke points. The idea that a fleet must either exit a relay as many small groups or a large formation that experiences massive drift is central to Turian tactics for defense or offense. It is considered a given and never questioned," said Nazara.

"What of the Geth?" Harbinger asked.

"I have sent the Geth that have joined us to work alongside the collectors. The ones that remain around Rannoch are unaware of our true plans. At any time, the virus can be deployed to commandeer these platforms. I estimate there to be a 50% chance of the Geth forming diplomatic relations with organic races by the time of the harvest."

"Keep the virus in reserve and try to create those relationships by influencing the organics. There would be too great of a chance of information about our existence being leaked if the virus is deployed now. I also wish for you to begin indoctrinating the Quarians. You should be able to have direct power in their leadership within 100 years. They will be the key to galactic tolerance of the free Geth. Is that all?" Harbinger asked.

"Yes, Harbinger."

"Good, and be advised, you must decide which races are worthy of becoming warriors. The rest are to become servants, or harvesters. The harvest approaches. Observe the races in detail and make your choices within 400 years. You will require the last 300 to plan the harvest itself," Harbinger said as he terminated the connection.

**3130 Fortress Platform Poseidon**

A man in dress blues, looked out of the room's only view port. The view was incredible. In the center of his vision were the bright lights of New Edan and the green surface they illuminated. The once cold and inhospitable planet had over the course of the last millennium turned into a true garden world. What was once a population of just 14 billion had grown into seven trillion. Centuries of energy production had warmed the planet up to habitable temperatures. Powerful lights on the surface produced an artificial day night cycle and a complex biosphere was created, filled with creatures and plants awoken from cryosleep. Brought from Earth by the great ark ships, they now roamed the unrestricted wilderness of New Eden. The only places untouched by the forests and grasslands were the 1000 multi-kilometer former ark ships, now highly populated arcologies, that together marked where the greatest cities of humanity lie. Below the surface, kilometers underground, was the planet wide network of tunnels, buildings, and metal that held all civilization on the planet.

Surrounding the planet were the many steel worlds of humanity. These were large, flat constructs thousands of miles wide, and hundreds of miles thick. Each of these were constantly growing bigger as the population grew with new citizens building homes, business, and cities for themselves. The surface of such worlds was covered with the greens and blues of plant life and oceans. The wealthier of Terran society had vacation homes here. They could enjoy long months living in large mansions with nature as far as the eye could see. Other Terrans could only visit the national parks and beaches for weeks or days. Behind these were faint flashes of light in every color, the iconic currents of the New Eden gas cloud. In the background, was the bright swirling mass of the Milky Way galaxy.

After he admired the view for a few more minutes, he heard the door close and turned around. Sitting in the conference room were 20 officers of the Terran Navy, all of them with four stars on each shoulder.

"Grand Admiral, we are ready to begin," one of them told him.

"Very well," he said as he took his seat at the end of the table. "Fleet commanders, in case you have been off world, you are here today to be given new orders. The Terran Republic is embarking on a new journey. We are taking what may be our most dangerous steps yet. With 20 fleets, trillions of citizens, and the conclusion of the great survey, both the Senate and the President believe that the Republic is ready to return to the galaxy and start opposing the reapers." A few admirals seemed surprised. He continued, "First, let's start with the plan. Intercepted reaper transmissions show that the current cycle only has six centuries at most left. Without anything happening on our part, the reapers will start their harvest in the year 3700. However, this will most likely happen earlier as when they realize humanity is still around and that we have developed outside their cycle, they will attack. The military's job is to secure a network of colonies, resource outposts, bases, and fortresses that can be used as the core of a galactic war effort. Billions of civilians will be waiting in colony ships to build up worlds as soon as we secure them," the Grand admiral said as a holoprojection of a map was shown.

The map was of the Milky Way galaxy and it had a region of space in the Perseus arm highlighted. "10 planets within this area will be colonized. It's near the edge of the galaxy where our chances of being discovered are minimal. Additionally, in this area is a mass relay that's only three jumps away from the Charon relay in the Solar system. This area is 100,000 light years from New Eden and will require three days of travel with a hybrid FTL core. With a warp drive, this trip takes eight years; comparable to a reaper," he said as the holoprojection changed to that of a ship.

It was a massive 21 kilometers in length. Its design was angular but had an overall curved shape. At its stern was multiple arrays of singularity drives; there was 72 of engines in total. Along the sides of the ship hangar bays dozens of service bays where visible, guarded from the void by orange shields. Countless plasma cannons, railguns, point defense cannons, and lasers doted the hull of the ship. There were more than 100 antimatter recoilless cannon (ARC) turrets and celestial lances, all battleship caliber. The main armament of 24 ARC gun turrets and 16 celestial lance turrets were the most visible. Each main turret was just over one kilometer in size. There were also two massive hangars a bit behind mid-ship where the vessel was widest, one on each side. Each of these was a small shipyard capable of repairing most vessels and constructing any ship destroyer length or shorter. Just under those shipyards was lettering that spelled out "TSV Spirit of Liberty."

"I would also like to remind everyone that should you encounter any intergalactic relays, such as the Citadel or Andromeda relays, only titans such as the Liberty or an equal amount of firepower can destroy it in any reasonable amount of time. Don't waste resources trying to blow it up with nothing but a dreadnought," the grand admiral advised. "Moving on to orders. The first through tenth fleets are to be placed under the newly created Terran Milky Way Command, TMWC. Admiral Martin will act as the first commander of the TMWC. Their jobs will be the protection of new colonies, the build up of defensive fortifications, special operations to sabotage or counter reaper agents, and to assist the diplomatic corps if needed." The holoprojection was now of the Andromeda galaxy.

"The 11th, 12th, and 13th fleets are assigned to Terran Intergalactic Command. Your mission will be to patrol intergalactic space between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies. Focus on identifying and monitoring any reaper structures or devices. If a reaper war fleet ever leaves Andromeda, you should be the first to know. In order to help with this task, you will be receiving new squadrons of corvettes and your ships will be the first to receive any new sensor tech or upgrades," he said. The holoprojector then turned off.

"The 14th through 20th fleets will stay under New Eden Command. These fleets will take on the additional roles of acting as reserves for Milky Way Command and assisting the training of new recruits. The President believes that to fight the reapers, our new sailors must have hands on experience. That will be all for today, dismissed," he finished. 20 admirals saluted, then left.

Before the Grand Admiral left, he took another look out the window. For 21 generations humanity had looked at a galaxy that was out of reach, one that held the promise of extinction. Now the time for hiding was finally over and the Terrans were returning. He wondered just what the Republic would find out there, within the swirling mass of billions of stars that his ancestors called home.

**Author Note:** And with that, the prologue is finished. Now that everything is setup, we can begin the main story. The Terrans might seem strong, but the reapers have received a power boost too. The reapers are just too weak in the games for how long they've been around, and how much knowledge they've collected. BTW the seven trillion population was estimated by having only a fifth of everyone live planet side, starting population of 14 billion, 700 years passed, an average annual growth rate of 1.1%, and some additional AI citizens.

**Edit:** Increased population growth rate estimate.


	3. Chapter 1: The Contested Promotion

**Chapter 1: The Contested Promotion**

**3133 Hope System**

At the edge of the Hope star system was the frozen world of Cryonis. On the surface, a great ocean spanned the entire planet, completely frozen solid. The landscape was filled with valleys and mountains of water ice. Smooth Lakes of liquid nitrogen dotted the surface, freezing in winter and thawing in summer.

Cryonis was one of the only two planets in the system. The other, the desert world of Sparta, was habitable. Contrary to what any other species would do, Sparta was a military world while the -332 degrees Fahrenheit planet of Cryonis was a civilian world. What would convince some aliens that humans were insane was the fact that this frozen planet happened to also be the Terran Republic's colonial capital.

Only one body of liquid water existed on Cryonis. surrounding a large 15-kilometer-wide, three-kilometer-tall ring, was a sea almost three kilometers deep, and 1000 kilometers wide. Within the waters lived strange species of fish who fed off the colonies of thermophilic bacteria that grew around the sea floor vents. These artificial vents expelled large amounts of heat, steam, and organic matter. They also produced vast amounts of oxygen, vital to the ecosystem around it as the planet's thin nitrogen atmosphere wouldn't provide the important gas. The small fish themselves were eaten by medium sized sharks. At the top of the food chain, was the apex predator of Cryonis: The Orca. Originating from Earth itself, killer whales become useful partners. Not only did they adapt well to alien waters, but they also worked alongside humans as explorers and scouts. The killer whales were the only other species carried by the Great Arks that was intelligent enough for humans to communicate and work with.

The ring itself housed the infrastructure needed to support planet wide transportation. The interior had systems of trams, roads, and walkways that made getting where you needed to be easy. Various storerooms, waiting lounges, businesses and hotels made up most of the interior of the large terminal. On the surface of the ring were hundreds of shipyards, docks, harbors, and landing pads, all pressurized and dark matter shielded. In addition to these civil facilities, 15 titan caliber armed turrets and various smaller ones protected the entire complex.

In the inner side of the ring, large armored and pressurized skyscrapers housed the various headquarters of government on local, planetary, and colonial levels. The towering form of a starport, with its kilometer-long docks, dominated the center of the city. All of this was the surface component of Dracodor city, capital of both Cryonis and the Thermopylae territory.

Even more impressive was the hundreds of subterranean cities under Cryonis' surface. These large underground cities would become a defining trait of human civilization. Far above the surface, however, was another impressive sight.

High in geostationary orbit was the naval fortress Hades, which had a rough U like shape. Various battleships and carriers could be seen docked around the outside curve of the 30-kilometer-long station. Even a dozen dreadnoughts were amongst them. The inside curve of the U shape was dedicated to a massive titan shipyard while the two ends of the hull had six battleship shipyards. The station's hangars could hold up to one million strike craft ranging from light fighters to heavy bombers. The guns, plasma weapons, missiles launchers, and torpedoes tubes scattered around the hull didn't disappoint; their combine firepower rivaled ten titans. A few hundred meters of titanium macro armor offered superb protection and hull integrity, while the lack of any main subluminal drives or FTL core allowed the fortress to power its massive shields, which were over 30 times stronger than a titan's. Its recharge rate was even better, as it was boosted by colossal singularity power plants from deep within Cryonis.

Such a large construct was only matched in size by the importance of its role. Surrounded by hundreds of smaller stations, it was the centerpiece of Bastion Naval Base. Bastion served as the current headquarters of the Terran First Fleet and could accompany up to six more. The base alone could annihilate anything less than three full battlefleets with ease.

Within this naval base, a man was sitting in his office. This man was wearing a dark blue suit coat with golden buttons and embroidery. His pants were of matching color. On each shoulder was four golden stars, same as the ones on the cap that was resting on his desk. He wore a tag that read, "ADM Davis," and wore many ribbons under it. He heard a knock on his door.

"Come in," he said. The door opened and in stepped another man. He was tall and had short, black hair. His uniform was similar, except his tag read "VADM Bowman" and he only had three stars on each shoulder. "What are you here for today, admiral?" Admiral Davis asked.

"I have concerns about Admiral Lee's pick for a new officer," he said. "The man is too young to command a task force. I believe command of Lee's seventh task force should go to someone with more experience," he said.

"Julian, you know why Commodore Messer was chosen. Admiral Lee reports that the man is knowledgeable and a good example to his subordinates. I've reviewed his record and agree. His manuals are taught to new officers, and those same officers come out of the academy with better performances and skills then we've seen before. His squadron regularly comes out on top in every type of wargame, and some of our best captains claim to have learned much from serving under his command," he reminded.

"While all of that is true admiral, he's only 34 years old. Most officers don't even make commander by that age. His promotion to captain, then commodore was already radical enough. War tests people in a way that peace time exercises don't," said Julian Bowman.

"Admiral Bowman, his impressive leadership isn't the only reason I'm approving his promotion. His dedication to the values of the republic and his sense of duty has made him a hero among both the navy and the people back home. I have every reason to believe his head will stay grounded, even when stress strains the minds of those around him. He won't forget his duty," replied Admiral Davis. It was then that another voice called out.

"With all due respect admirals, might I recommend closing the door before discussions?" said a third man. This man was of average height and had an aura of confidence around him. His eyes and hair were both brown. This was Marcus Messer.

"Speak of the devil and he will appear; welcome to my office Commodore Messer," said Davis. "I apologize for the noise. Admiral Bowman here must have forgotten about the door in his passion." The admiral in question was red from embarrassment. "You may go now admiral; there is nothing else you could say to convince me." Bowman quickly left. Davis turned to the Commodore, "I take it you overheard most of that?"

"Only the end of it, sir. I heard something about a promotion and Terran values," informed Marcus. Davis signed a paper before replying.

"Well then you should be pleased to know that as of now, you're Rear Admiral Marcus Messer, commanding officer of battle group hydra's seventh task force. Your former superior, admiral Johnson, has been transferred to the tech and research branch. He said that he was, 'getting too old for the front line, and I got buddies in MTRB.' Congratulations, admiral."

"Thank you, sir."

"Now that that's out of the way, I would like your choice of command ships. Keep in mind that we have no free battleships left. You would have to wait a week or so for the next ones to be delivered from New Edan," said Davis.

"Well I wouldn't want to wait, and the maneuverability of a BC would be great. I'll take some battle cruisers, sir."

"Then your new ships are waiting for you at docking port B-12 and B-14 in alpha section. Your ship is the TSV Iowa. She's commanded by Captain David Rogers. The captain will give you your new stars and insignia. Your XO will be commodore Hanna Pike. She's on the TSV London, while your third ship, the Washington, will be back in port by tonight. Go get yourself acquainted with your new vessels and do it fast. You're to report to my office tomorrow morning at eight. Task Force Iowa is getting a new assignment," said Davis.

"Yes sir, I'll make sure we're ready by then." Marcus turned, saluted, then left.

As he stepped out of the office he was excited and a bit worried. Admiral Bowman wasn't the only one who had thought he was too young, and that was back when he became a commodore. Now he would soon wear a second star, and those who opposed him could one day become his direct superiors. Yet he had his own cards to play too. Admiral Davis has been a long-time ally; the commander of the First Fleet seemed to see something in him. Back home, he also had some political contacts, along with high popularity with the civilian population.

These thoughts occupied his mind until he finally reached docking port B-12. From the window he could see his new ship, the TSV Iowa. The vessel was large, a full seven kilometer long. Its hull was painted the gray, black, and blues of the Terran Navy. He found the ship to be beautiful. The bow was blade like shape in shape, with the top and bottom of the ship sloping down and meeting in the middle. On the flat, angled bow were eight large oval shaped hatches. These were the doors to large torpedo tubes. Each tube was connected to a magazine containing four super torpedoes. One or two of those could flatten a mountain range or crack open a battleship. However, they were as easy to shoot down as they were deadly. 50 meters in diameter, they were slow to turn and easy to hit.

Between the bow and the middle, the ship started to widen out. The middle of the vessel was its widest and was split into two sections. Each section had a hangar in the middle and a celestial lance turret on top and bottom. The hangar doors were rectangular, each 30 by 300 meters in size. Towards the rear, the hull narrowed again, but its width was maintained by two large engine pods, one on each side of the ship. The hull itself ended in a cylindrical engine array. This gave the vessel 14 individual engines to power and propel it.

On the sloped sides of the hull, various turrets, platforms, and pylons made up most of the warship's point defense system. Missile turrets, laser batteries, and rapid-fire gun turrets stood ready to shoot down any strike craft or torpedo that threatened the ship. Right behind the bow, on each side of the ship, were two large lance turrets. Another two turrets were placed in front the hangar sections, mounting ARC guns instead of lances.

The bottom side of the ship was made up of three large section, each raised up a bit more as they went farther back. This staged design allowed the ARC gun turrets, one on each section, to all fire forward at the same time. Behind these guns was the ventral hanger. This was a large hangar with a squarer shaped door, designed to house larger craft such as heavy bombers, assault transports, or cargo shuttles. The smallest spacecraft within this hanger were the heavy fighters. On either side of the hangar door were various sensor arrays and observation towers. Between the ventral hangar and the engine array, were two rear facing ARC gun turrets. Good for a broadside salvo, but useless for head on engagements.

The top of the ship was very similar to the bottom until you got to the rear. Instead of a hangar and multiple small towers, there was one large fin like tower. Jutting out from the sides were powerful sensor arrays, telescopes, and antennas. At the very top was a large observation deck; within, lookouts could look out large windows to visually inspect the ship's hull. Next to the tower were two ARC gun turrets, one on either side. Behind the main observation tower was a single rear facing turret, then the engine array.

All around the ship, countless smaller cruiser caliber weapons could be seen dotted along the hull. The railguns and plasma turrets could tear destroyers and light cruisers apart, while regular sized torpedo tubes could launch volleys of antimatter warheads at larger enemies.

Admiral Messer tried to remember as much as he could about the Iowa. It was the fourteenth Carthage class battle cruiser ever produced and featured high tech shields. While just as strong, Carthage classes had shields with faster recharge rates. The larger number of sensors also give them an advantage in range, as the ship could calculate more accurate firing solutions at longer distances. Its hull was protected by 50 to 80 meters of solid titanium macro armor. The ship had a complement of 5,000 fighters and 1,000 heavy bombers. Another 500 utility craft were onboard. These included shuttles, repair and construction vehicles, and training craft.

He thought the ship was quite impressive and looked forward to commanding it. Just then, another ship came into view. As it made its way to dock with port B-14, he could read the words on its side, "TSV London." This must be his task force's second battle cruiser, also of the Carthage class. To Rear Admiral Messer, nothing was more beautiful than seeing those two giants next to each other. The fact that a third Carthage class vessel would soon join them filled him with a sense of confidence rarely felt ever since humanity had learned of the reapers.

His admiration was broken by the thought that he better hurry. He quickly made his way across the docking port arm and into the air lock. On the other side of the door, a man was waiting for him.

"Hello Admiral Messer. I'm Captain Rogers, commanding officer of the TSV Iowa. Welcome aboard," he said.

"Good day Captain, I was told you had something for me," Marcus said.

"Yes admiral, your new insignia, stars, and cap are waiting for you in your quarters. I'll take you to your quarters if you want, it's near the CIC where I'm going."

"Thanks, that would be helpful. Also, I would like to know when you and your staff can move to the flag bridge," asked Marcus.

"It'll take us a day to pack up the CIC and move there, sir." Replied David.

After he put on his new stars, name tag, and insignia, Rear Admiral Marcus Messer, who now looked the part, made his way to his new workstation, the capital ship's flag bridge. The room was large and had more than a hundred computers, displays, and holoprojectors. Between the two doors, on an elevated platform, was the command chair.

He walked up the stairs and took a seat; he was now overlooking the entire bridge. The room seemed to be divided into five sections. In the top right of room, he could see computer screens and holoprojectors displaying various maps. There were maps of star systems, planets, and even a large holoprojection of the entire galaxy. This must be task force navigation.

Across from navigation, to the top left, he saw displays filled with other ships, while some of the computer screens had people talking. There tended to be a lot of talking over there. That section was task force communications.

Closer to him were two more sections. On the right holoprojectors showed assault transports, guns, and body armor. He could also see high ranking officers of both the Marine Corps the Navy's Viper command, it's special forces branch. That was the ground forces command center.

The section to the left of the command center was quite large. It, however, was also empty of people. The only sign of power was the giant holoprojection of the Iowa itself. This was the flag bridge's ship combat information center. He wondered what it would look like once Captain Rogers moved in.

The fifth section was closest he him. It surrounded him, giving Marcus a clear view of what everyone in it was doing. Screen were filled with diagrams of various ships, their positions, and combat statuses, while other screens showed fighter formations and attack patterns. Directly in front of him, was a large holoprojector showing all ten of task force Iowa's squadrons, plus its three Carthage class battle cruisers. This section was the Admiral's own section, the Task Force CIC.

From his chair, he could see or contact everyone. His own seat was surrounded by screens and holoprojectors that could be set to show various things from communication logs to weapons system diagrams.

He set his chair's communications system to room wide and spoke.

"This is Rear Admiral Marcus Messer speaking. All section leaders report your status and any issues you are dealing with."

"This is Captain Elliot of communications, no issues here. Task Forces communications are good and combat ready."

"Captain Gears reporting from navigation. All ships are sailing or ready to sail without issue. We move on your command, sir."

"Colonel Thompson Reporting from the command center. All marine and viper units of the task force are combat ready."

Seeing as Captain Rogers had already told him that the Iowa was ready for operations, the entire task force was ready. His only task left was to speak to his XO, Commodore Pike.

As soon as he made is way back into the docks, he spotted a woman in a commodore's uniform. She looked to be in her early 40s. Her hair was blonde, and she seemed to be of average height.

"Excuse me, are you Commodore Pike," he asked.

"Yes sir, I'm Commodore Hanna Pike. I assume you are Admiral Messer?"

"Correct Commodore. I'm your new commanding officer. Make sure the London and the Washington will be ready to move out by tomorrow, just in case. Task Force Iowa is getting a new assignment, and I want every ship to be ready," Marcus ordered.

"Yes sir. I can confirm that my vessel, the TSV London, is ready for operations. However, I just got word from Caption Jordan of the TSV Washington that his ship's starboard engine array is suffering a minor leak. It'll take the whole night to repair; some of the crew won't be getting a good night's rest," she informed.

"I'll keep that in mind, commodore," Marcus said as he made his way back to the Iowa. He spent the rest of the day catching up on what each squadron had been doing within the past week, and various types of ships he had under his command. Task force Iowa was of a standard size. This meant that he commanded over 100 ships, split into ten squadrons. In addition to the squadrons, he also had command of his three capital ships, the battle cruisers Iowa, London, and Washington.

Before going to bed, he sent an email to Admiral Davis, reporting that Task Force Iowa was ready for operations. Tomorrow, Marcus Messer would get his first mission as a task force commander, and he felt ready.

**Author's Note:** And thus, concludes the first main story chapter. I hope you guys are liking the story so far. The first few chapters might be slow to write since I'm playing the mass effect games again to freshen up my memory.


	4. Chapter 2: Simple Scouting

**Chapter 2: Simple Scouting**

Admiral Marcus Messer looked at his clock: 7:30 am. It was time to make his way to Davis' office. He quickly finished his breakfast and disembarked from the Iowa. As he entered the station, he noticed a commodore coming out of docking port B-13.

"Hello there, you commodore Burns?" asked Marcus.

"Yes Admiral. Commodore Matthew Burns of the TSV Washington," said the commodore as he saluted.

"I was just about to head to Admiral Davis' office, but I still have some time for a sitrep. How's the Washington doing? Your captain said you had engine problems yesterday," informed Marcus.

"Yes, the starboard engines. We managed to fix it, but it took quite some effort from the engineers. Captain Jordan has given them some time to catch up on some sleep, so we are a bit under manned for today. It's no real issue though," Burns reported.

"That's very good commodore. I'll tell Admiral Davis and Admiral Lee that we're ready to sail. Goodbye Matt," said Marcus as he walked away.

Another 15 minutes of walking and he was standing in front of Davis' office. Inside he could see two figures. He knocked on the door.

"Come in, come in," said Davis' voice.

Now inside, he could see that the second man was short and had black hair. This was Vice Admiral John Lee, commanding officer of battlegroup Hydra.

"Rear Admiral Messer reporting as ordered, sir"

"Your right on time admiral; I hope Task Force Iowa is ready for it's first mission," said Davis. "It's Battlegroup Hydra's turn for border patrol duty. Admiral Lee here will give you your specific task."

"Thank you, Admiral," Lee said. "Messer, along the northeastern border of our space, a senor array detected slight dark energy anomalies in the Hawking system. It's probably just some eezo asteroids, but I want your task force to check it out just in case. After that, you will be patrolling border section seven."

Davis spoke again, "Since this is your first time leading a task force, we want to start you off easy. It's a simple scout and patrol, I'm sure you won't run into any problems. If something goes wrong, you are free to contact me or Admiral Lee. I like to keep an eye of new officers, even if they have excellent records."

"Sounds easy enough. I'll get right on, sir. I'm happy to report that other than a few less engineers on duty for the Washington, all ships of task force Iowa have no issues. We can start the mission right away," said Marcus.

Lee seemed a bit confused. He asked, "wait what's wrong with the Washington? Last I checked she has no shortage of crew."

"Her captain is just giving the engineers extra time to rest. They stayed up all night fixing a minor engine leak. They can be woken up if necessary," explained Marcus.

"Well let's not keep you are too long. Your dismissed, good scouting admiral," said Davis. Marcus saluted, then left. He thought the mission was almost too easy. On the other hand, it would give him more time to get use to commanding so many ships. Overall, the rear admiral was satisfied with his first mission.

Once he was back on the Iowa, he immediately headed to the flag bridge. When he entered, he saw that the ship's CIC section had been filled up. Captain Rogers was there to greet him.

"Hello admiral. I have to say, this room's a lot more spacious then I'm used to."

"It is pretty big. I assume you're finding it adequate?" asked Marcus.

"Oh yes, it's more than enough. Commanding the Iowa from here will be a pleasure, sir," he replied.

"That's great captain, because we're moving out right now. Task force Iowa is going to scout some border anomaly, then patrol the border" informed Marcus.

Soon after he gave the order, the ship disconnected from the docking port and slowly back away from the fortress. Once it was two kilometers out, it's maneuvering drive system kicked to life and it quickly turned towards galactic northeast. He ordered comms to patch him into the task force wide channel.

"This is Rear Admiral Messer to all ships of task force Iowa. Admiral Lee has given us the task of checking out some energy anomaly detected near the border. After that, we will join up with the rest of Battlegroup Hydra and patrol border section seven. It's a boring job, but it's necessary. Form up around the Iowa and prepare to jump. Good sailing, Admiral out," said Marcus as he put the communicator down. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the other ships.

Soon all ships were apart of the formation, with the TSV Iowa in the middle of it. The London was to its left with the Washington to its right. Marcus picked up the communicator again, "All ships, on my order, jump to just one light year away from the Hawking system. That's galactic coordinates 358, -781." He gave them a few seconds to prepare, then, "All ships, jump!" he said as the space around the Iowa began to warp. The stars stretched and pulled, and soon a blue rimmed black disk started to form Infront of every squadron and the three capital ships. Just a second or two later, the task force's warp drives activated, propelling each ship through one of the 13 dimensional rifts, straight into an empty realm universe. Most ships would spend around two hours in this reality before popping back into real space.

Once they did, Marcus asked for a report. "What's the status of the task force?" he asked.

Navigation responded. "Captain Gears speaking. All ships are accounted for. There were no issues with the jump, sir." Hearing that, Marcus opened the communication system again.

"All ships, the jump was good, repeat the jump was good. Now that we are all here, I can see that the Iowa's sensors confirm the dark energy readings reported." Then, a lieutenant commander nearby told him something. Marcus spoke again, "Wait, we're reading that the energy signature is larger than expected. Anyone else getting that?"

"Commodore Pike here. The London can confirm, there's something there and it's bigger than what Admiral Lee thought."

"Commodore Burns speaking from the Washington. We can confirm as well."

Marcus reconsidered his approach. No rogue asteroid can just grow more eezo. This was something else. Risking large, less maneuverable vessels to the unknown wouldn't be smart, yet smaller ships might not be able to deal with whatever they found. He made his decision and gave some orders, "All squadrons, I'm taking direct command of any corvettes you have. You'll have to use frigates as your picket ships. These corvettes are designated as Command Group Alpha; the TSV Bulldog will act as lead ship."

He gave the corvettes time to separate from their squadrons, then said, "Alpha group will investigate the anomaly. Everyone one else, be prepared to jump in if they need help. Squadrons one through four are to form up around the Iowa and are designated Command Group Iowa. Squadrons five, six, and seven are to from up around the London. You are Command Group London. The remaining ships are Command Group Washington."

Once the task force reorganized itself, the 30 corvettes of alpha jumped to the anomaly site, which records say should only have a research outpost.

A moment later, a commander spoke up.

"This is the Bulldog. We have entered the Hawking system. There's a few civilians ship here, research vessels and transports from the looks of things. The planet Ventalia is clean, no anomalies there. The energy seems to be coming from the edge of the system. Commander Slate out," reported the commander.

A few minutes after that transmission, the commander sent a second report. He said, "This is TSV Bulldog, we are closing in on the outer asteroid belt. Sensors show that there's a mass relay sir! It's active and we can read mass effect signatures around it, about a few thousands of them." Hearing that, Marcus decided it was time to step in.

"This is admiral Messer speaking. Commander, this might be a first contact situation; that's more mass effect ships than we have ever built. Proceed with caution. If they open fire, evade at long range until you can figure out their intentions. Messer out."

"Yes sir, moving in now," he said as the comm channel went silent once again.

Marcus set the large holoprojector in front of him to fleet view. Now he could see what the commander was talking about. The projector showed the 30 Terran corvettes flying towards a fleet of unknown ships. Computer estimates predicted around 5,000 mass effect signatures. As the corvettes got closer, more details could be made out. The unknowns where of all sorts of shapes and sizes. There didn't seem to be any design the fleet shared. Of note was the ship in the center of their formation. It was the largest vessel, and its shape was that of a sphere with a small, long section of hull sticking out the back. Soon, the unknown fleet noticed the corvettes and began to move into what seemed like a defensive formation. The large spherical ship moved to the back.

"This is Commander Slate again. The unknowns are sending over a package via laser comms. Admiral, should we accept?" the commander asked.

"Set up an isolated network, then accept the message. I want to see what these people have to say. Once it's cleared, transmit the message to the rest of the task force."

"Copy that. Receiving the message now. Our cyberwarfare specialist is looking over it. Should take few minutes until we are ready to transmit to the task force," replied Slate.

A few minutes passed, and the commander commed in again. "We have detected no malicious code in the message. The message itself contains two parts: info on their language and a video file. Transmitting decoded message now. Also, Admiral, you were right. These seem to be aliens, sir," he said as his face was replaced by a video. A masked figure began to speak.

"To unknown vessels. We are the Quarian people. We wish only for peace, but we will defend ourselves if attacked. We hope to be able to mine the resources of this star system but will leave if you wish us to. My name is Admiral Keetal'Sharra vas Rayya; my ships is the largest one. Please reply."

Marcus was stunned only for a second. Then he gave orders, "Commander Slate, maintain your position. I don't want any sudden moves. Commodore Pike, you'll contact fleet HQ and tell Admiral Davis about this while I talk with the aliens. Captain Rogers, install the alien language into our translation programs. Captain Elliot, link the Iowa up with the Bulldog's communications, then use the laser comm system to contact that spherical ship."

A moment later, Marcus's comm screen showed the face of the masked alien. "Greetings Admiral Keetal'Sharra vas Rayya. I am Admiral Marcus Messer of the Terran Navy. The Terran Republic welcomes you to this star system. We call it the Hawking system, and we would also prefer peaceful relations," said Marcus.

The alien admiral replied, "that is a relief to hear. Does this mean we can stay in this star system?"

"You may stay, admiral, but don't move any farther into our territory. With your permission, I would like to transmit information of our borders to you. Also, make sure you don't land on the fourth planet from the star. That's Ventalia, a civilian world. The resources in this system aren't of interest to us. You may collect them if you wish"

"You have my permission to show us your borders, Admiral. We are gracious for your generosity. I would like to send a diplomat to speak with your people. We would exchange knowledge or make formal agreements. Would that be acceptable? Also, if you find my name too long, Admiral Sharra or Keetal'Sharra is fine," said Admiral Sharra.

"That would be ideal, Admiral Sharra. I must contact my superiors now. My task force only has military officers, how long can you wait for one of our diplomats to arrive?" Marcus asked.

"We can wait as long as you wish. It will take us months to fully mine this asteroid belt," Keetal replied.

"Then we have a plan. I'll contact you again after I've talked with my superiors. Also, stand by for transmission. You'll need to know our borders," he said as the call ended, and the screen faded to black. Marcus turned to communications, "Captain Elliot, please contact fleet HQ, Davis' office."

The comm screen now showed three people: Admiral Davis, Vice Admiral Lee, and Commodore Pike. Davis spoke first.

"Admiral Messer, what can you tell us about these aliens?" he asked.

"Admiral, these aliens call themselves Quarians and possess a fleet of over 5,000 ship, although only one of them is larger than a frigate. They've requested a diplomatic meeting and seem peaceful. I've told them to not go farther into our borders. They've agreed and seem to be content with just mining Hawking's asteroid belt. The Quarian I spoke to called himself Admiral Keetal'Sharra vas Rayya, Admiral Sharra for short. How should we proceed, sir?" reported Marcus.

Davis replied, "I'm putting Admiral Lee in charge of the Quarian situation. He'll have the support of battlegroups Medusa and Cyclops. I've also informed the President himself. He's coming over to the Milky Way. Until he arrives, however, we will need a diplomat. That job goes to you, Messer. You've already talked to these aliens, and the President is impressed by your political experience. He has personally given you temporary diplomatic power. You can negotiate minor trade of common resources, non-aggression pacts, and the establishment of any diplomatic posts within the Thermopylae territory. Also, you are permitted to tell them about the Reapers, if it seems appropriate Good luck admiral."

"I get right to it. One last question, what's the President's ETA?"

"President Holden will arrive within three days," replied Davis.

"Goodbye admirals, I'll report back soon," Marcus said as he left the call.

He then contacted the Quarians. The screen turned back on, this time with Keetal'Sharra's face on it. Marcus spoke first, saying, "Hello again Admiral Sharra, I've got some news for you. My superiors have assigned me to be the Terran diplomat until our leader, President Michael Holden, arrives. That will take about three days."

"That's good news indeed, Admiral. Do you have a suggestion for a meeting place?" Keetal asked.

"We can either meet on your ship or my ship, which ever works best for you."

"Then we will meet onboard your vessel. As leader of the civilian fleet, I have been chosen to represent the Quarian people. Which ship am I to go to?" he asked.

"My entire task force isn't within system yet; we thought too many ships would provoke a battle. The corvette TSV Bulldog, the one leading our formation, can take you to my flagship," Marcus said.

"Good thinking Admiral. Many of my captains are already getting nervous. Just to be clear, your corvette is the 500-meter long vessel, right? We would classify that as a cruiser. I would also like to know how long this trip will take."

"Yes, that ship is the corvette. As for your second question, quite fast. You will only be in FTL for less than a minute," informed Marcus.

"Then I'll see you soon, Admiral Messer," Keetal said as the screen turned off. Soon after, Marcus' XO entered the comm channel.

"Hello Commodore," greeted Marcus.

"Please Sir, after all this time you can call me Hannah. I as wondering, sorry if this is too personal, but what did Admiral Davis mean by your political experience? I thought you were only ever military," Hannah asked.

"I have some time to answer that. You see, back when the navy paraded me around as a hero, I met with a lot of politicians. Apparently, I have some political talent; it made me a lot of connections and influence. I can tell you about it later if you want, right now I have a meeting to focus on," he said as he ended that call.

* * *

A few minutes later, Marcus could see the projection of the TSV Bulldog jump in right next to the Iowa.

"This is the Bulldog; we are inbound ETA two minutes. The Quarian admiral is onboard."

Captain Gears responded, "Copy that commander. Your shuttle is cleared to dock in hangar three, repeat you are cleared to dock in hangar three.

"Docking in hangar three."

Marcus stood up from his chair. "Well I better go greet the admiral," he said as he entered task force comms. "All ships of task force Iowa, I'm going to be busy speaking with the Quarian. While I'm away, commodore Pike has full command."

He made it to hangar three just in time to see the shuttle land. Like all Terran strike craft, its design was filled with curves and sharp, blade like angles. The rear door opened, and out stepped the Admiral and two Quarian bodyguards. The Quarians stood out from the marines in the hangar due to their far lighter armor.

"Welcome aboard the TSV Iowa, a Carthage class battlecruiser," said Marcus.

"I have to say admiral, I nearly thought you calling that ship a corvette was some translation error. Your ships are gigantic. How long is this vessel? It has to be over two kilometers," Keetal said, somewhat in awe.

"That's an understatement. The Iowa is just over seven kilometers long."

"By the ancestors, seven kilometers? How do you build so big?"

"I'm am just a rear admiral, I'm no engineer. I'm sure the meeting room would be a better place to discuss such things," Marcus reminded.

"Yes, of course. Let's go there then."

Another minute of walking led the four-man group to hallway with a ring of energy in it. It seemed like a vertical halo of blue light floating in the middle of a short hall. The light was produced by several energy emitting antennas. The Quarian admiral asked, "What is that? I've never seen such a thing."

Marcus responded, "That's a wormhole. A few of them are place around the ship to make traveling the multiple kilometers of it faster. This one leads to right outside the officer section, where our best conference room is."

"Incredible."

Another minute after they stepped through the wormhole, they reached the meeting room's door. Inside, there was a large u-shaped table surrounding a holoprojector. The Admirals took their seats, while the two Quarian marines guarded the inside of the door. Outside the room, two Terran viper command soldiers stood guard. Only the navy's best troops were trusted to guard a first contact.

"So, what would you like to discuss first, Admiral Sharra?" asked Marcus.

"I'm not sure. To be honest I'm still a little overwhelmed by these new experiences. Also, please call me Keetal. Admiral sound to formal to me."

"Sure thing, Keetal. I think we should begin with how your fleet found itself in our territory. Also, if I call you Keetal, then you should call me Marcus"

"Very well, Marcus. We call our fleet the Migrant Fleet. You see, we are the last remains of people. Over a thousand years ago, our people were driven off our home world by an AI rebellion. We used robotic servants, but in doing so we accidentally create self-aware AI. Even now, no one agrees on what happened next. Some say the AI struck first, some say they acted in self defense. It matters little, the result is the same. Only those who escaped on ships survived," informed Admiral Keetal.

"If only 5,000 ships escaped, then that must have been a tragedy. That sounds horrible."

"It was much more than 5,000. The migrant fleet used to number over ten times that, but the Geth, our AI creations, were only the start of our misfortune. You see, the other races of the galaxy thought it fitting for our people to be stuck in our ships. That claimed it was fair punishment. They tend to be hostile to us. We ended up here by basically running away."

Marcus considered this for a moment.

"Who are these other races, and why do they punish you for something that happened generations ago?" he asked.

"The main races behind our continual decline call themselves the Citadel races. These are the Asari, Turians, Salarians, and most recently, the Batarians. You must understand, our fleet could barely support its own population. Like most societies, we too had criminals. We couldn't afford to imprison them and to kill them was too cruel. We had to exile them," Keetal said.

Marcus gained a look of understanding.

"I see. By exiling the criminals, the other races would see them more often. The good Quarians stayed in the fleet, while the rest of the galaxy only met the bad ones."

"Correct, the other races tend to consider us as thieves and scammers, and we face much discrimination throughout the galaxy. As centuries passed, it only got worse. No race would help us. Often, they would only take advantage of us. No one would care if some Quarians were killed and had their ship stolen."

Marcus considered the sad tale. He had many questions.

"How come you are still in this fleet? Surely after so many years you would have found a planet to settle," Marcus asked.

"You see, we Quarians have a different biology compared to most races. Our bodies are made of dextro-amino acids. This seems to be rare; most worlds are filled with Levo life. Those worlds aren't inhabitable for us. Unfortunately, the only other intelligent race that shares our biochemistry are the Turians. With the power of a Citadel Council race, they simply claim any dextro world we find. We tried to resist once, but that was a mistake. When we wouldn't leave, the Batarians, who had recently became a Council race, saw an opportunity. They convinced they rest of them to attack us."

Marcus seemed both a bit disturbed and confused.

"Who is this Citadel Council? The only Citadel we know of is an ancient alien space station. Also, why would these Batarians want to attack you?" Marcus asked.

"Oh, sorry. I was too caught up in our history, I forgot you have never met any Council race. The Citadel Council is that main governing body of the galaxy. They rule from the Prothean space station you know about. Like I said, there are four of them, while many other races live under them. These species have less power but are still a part of galactic politics. As for the Batarians, they have a use for my people. You see, the Batarian Hegemony, their government, is a slaver empire. They believe in a strict hierarchy, where a master caste rule over slaves. They're also the main reason we have been so demonized; it makes Quarians easy targets for them. To attack and enslave us is considered, 'taking out the trash,' by the rest of the galaxy. Even now, billions of Quarians live in slavery," he said, with a hint of sadness in his voice.

Marcus was shocked.

"Slavery? The Batarians are slavers? How does the rest of the galaxy allow that?!" he exclaimed.

"The Batarians were hated for it. Their cruelty was legend, told of only by the few slaves that escaped. They justified it by claiming slavery as their cultural right, but that didn't work very well; that is, until a few hundred years ago. For some unknown reason, powerful investors, companies, and governments made strange financial choices. These choices came together to cause the galactic economy to crash. Only the Batarians with their slave labor had enough economic power to keep their economy under control. They then helped the other races recover, earning them a council seat. The Batarians are now a large part of the galactic Economy. The galaxy lets the Batarians keep their slaves, since many feared that without slaves, the Batarian economy would crash, taking the rest of the galaxy with it," Keetal explained.

"The Terran Republic considers slavery to be a great evil. When we meet these Batarians, we will try to see what can be done to help their slaves. This I can promise."

"Thank you for your words. That would be more help then we Quarians ever received. Ever since that day on our would-be colony, the Batarians have hunted us down for slaves. But enough about us, this talk is ruining my mood. I would like to hear about your people."

"I'm glad you asked. Our nation is called the Terran Republic, but as a species we are called humans," Marcus said.

"Humans? I thought your kind was extinct. Asari explorers reported your world of Earth to be a nuclear wasteland, taken out by AIs similar how we were slaughtered by Geth," said Keetal.

"Then our plan worked as intended. We had to hid from a threat we weren't powerful enough to face. Those bodies on our home world were nothing more than braindead clones and robots that have never been activated. All of these will be explained later," replied Marcus.

"I see, that is quite the story. What kind of government do you have? The only republics we have heard of are the Asari republics."

"Our government is complex. To simplify things, it can be said that there are three main branches. One to make laws, one to enforce them, and one to judge them. The legislative branch makes laws and is lead by our senate. The executive branch enforces our laws and is lead by the President. These leaders are elected by our people. The third branch is lead by our supreme court. These Judges are picked by their performance, not by vote," explained Marcus.

Keetal replied, "Our system is not as complex. We have two governing bodies, the conclave and the admiralty. The conclave represents our civilian leadership. Their decisions can be vetoed by us admirals but require all five admirals to resign afterwards. Due to this, the admirals' veto is rarely used."

Marcus prepared himself for his next question.

"Keetal, I have to ask, what do Quarians think of AI? Your Geth rebellion must have given your people reason to hate them."

"We are actually more divided than outsiders tend to realize. We have no hatred of AIs in general, only the Geth. In fact, before they became true AIs, we had already been trying to make AIs. To understand this, you must understand a bit about our culture. Ancient Quarians believed in ancestor worship. This has continued in the form of great cultural respect given to the wisdom of our ancestors. In order to maintain this wisdom, we Quarians store their knowledge and personality as computer VI programs. However, these virtual intelligences weren't true AI and thus weren't alive. We wanted to change that. The Geth attack before we could, and our ancestor databanks were lost to us." Keetal waited a moment for that to sink in.

He then continued, "But after the Geth war, most Quarians thought AI was too dangerous. Half of us still tend to think that way, while the other half believe it to be a way to escape mortality and save our people."

Marcus' face relaxed a bit. He responded,

"I'm glad to hear that Keetal. You see, in Terran society AIs are considered intelligent life with full rights. We have had AI citizens for about a millennium now, with no rebellion to speak of. They represent about 20 percent of our total population. I hope this isn't much of a problem.

This caught Keetal'Sharra by surprise.

"That will be shocking news to our people. However, I believe most people would welcome it. The idea that AIs could be the allies we dreamed of back when our people still roamed Rannoch would be wonderful."

"Rannoch? What's that?" asked Marcus

"Rannoch is our home world. In our language, known as Khelish, it means walled garden."

Marcus then looked at the time. It had been almost an hour now, and he should probably report some of this to Davis.

"While I have enjoyed talking to you, it's time for me to report back to my superiors. We can continue this talk later, perhaps in another hour."

"That will be fine, Marcus," said Keetal. After hearing that, Marcus said goodbye and left for the flag bridge.

* * *

He took his seat and called Davis.

"Hello Messer. What do you have to report?" Davis asked.

"There's a lot to talk about sir. What we're looking at is likely a refugee fleet. Their admiral claims they're running from a hostile galaxy. It seems the relay system is ruled by four different species, Keetal called them, 'Citadel Council races.' The one they're mainly threatened by are called Batarians. Admiral Sharra says that these Batarians are a slave empire, and that the Quarians are easy targets. He also claims to face discrimination from the rest of the galaxy. He said that other races viewed the enslaving of Quarians as, 'taking out the trash,' sir," reported Marcus.

Davis let out a heavy sigh. The fleet commander took a second to compose his thoughts.

"Then this situation is even more serious then we thought. Our values and laws are clear, we are obligated to investigate these accusations. I'll have the fleet prepared for possible conflict with these alien powers, and our stealth ships will have to be sent into possibly hostile space. I'll give the orders immediately, but first the President will have to be informed."

"Understood sir. I'll have my task force's stealth frigates and viper units prepped and ready. I'll try to get Keetal to tell us as much about these council races as possible. Also, there's more to the Quarian story. They apparently first ran into trouble as a species about a thousand years ago. For unknown reasons, their robot servants gained sentience and rebelled. The Quarians were slaughtered and driven off their home world. Forced to be a band of nomads, they started to face hostility from the rest of the galaxy. They also claim to be unable to settle any planets. Their biology is different from us in the way their amino acids are formed. They can only live on worlds with dextro-amino acid life. These worlds are rare, we ourselves have only found a few of them. That makes them valuable. Any time they try to colonize one, the Turians, another council race, claim it for themselves."

Davis also took some time to consider this. Then he replied,

"Great, even more to investigate. We'll also have to do something about their lack of a home. I'm concerned about that AI rebellion though. Will they be hostile to our AI citizens?" asked Davis

"Well I'm sure some of them will, they seem human enough to have a few close-minded people, but Keetal told me that they as a people don't hate AIs. Before their AI rebellion, they had actually tried to make AIs as a path to immortality. Half of them still believe in that, while the other half thinks it's too risky," answered Marcus.

"That'll make things easier. If they can work with AIs, then our job becomes much simpler. Make sure to give them a copy of our laws. They'll need to know them if they seek refuge here. I also want to know what they know about the planets and borders of these council races. More information in general about this Citadel Council is important. If that's all then you are free to leave. I have quite a report to write. You should also wait until I've told the president about this before talking to the Quarian again. Holden might have additional orders for you"

As Marcus' comm screen faded to black, Marcus's head filled with thoughts. He wondered what else he could do to help these Quarians, and how he was going to fight this Citadel Council if it came to war. He would find a way, and he would do it fast. He remembered the day he became an officer of the Terran Navy, when he swore an oath to protect the rights and values of the constitution. Now was the time to do just that, and with the guns of task force Iowa behind him, Marcus was ready to do his part.

**Author's note:** That wraps up the second chapter. If your wondering were I got the Quarians trying to make AI thing, it comes from Mass Effect's codex itself. It's described under Quarians: religion. Hopefully what's happened during the nearly a thousand years between Mass Effect 1 and 3133 makes some sense. Keep in mind that the reapers are still influencing things. And if you're getting tired of all the talking, don't worry. Once we get past diplomacy with the Quarians, military operations can begin. Also, yes there will be a Shepard in this story, but the focus will be just as much on Marcus as it is on Shepard.


	5. Chapter 3: Preparations

**Chapter 3: Preparations**

Admiral Messer was in his quarters, with a phone in his hand. He dialed a number few people knew and soon a holographic projection of a man in his 50s sprung to life. Marcus could see a large window in the background.

"Hello Commodore, what are you calling about?" asked the man, who was wearing a fine suit.

"Senator Ruemann, good to see you. I'm calling about a favor. Also, it's admiral now; I got promoted." Marcus replied.

"Congratulation then. I'd be happy to help you."

Marcus gave him a smile. It seemed the senator still appreciated the work Marcus did a year ago.

"That's good to hear. I can't say much right now, but I think the Terran Federation is going to need an ambassador soon. When that happens, I'll need you to support me and talk to the president," requested Marcus.

The senator paused for a moment.

He checked a few documents on his desk, then replied, "I can do even better than that if you can give me some help. I could convince senator Cain to support you if I can somehow get her an interview on the American Times evening news. She's looking for a way to announce a new anti-crime campaign."

This made Marcus happy. Senator Cain was a very influential women who was elected without campaigning for more than a week; her opponents were all corrupt and she was the one who exposed them. Her support would shut up even the most anti-military of activists.

"That would be great. I'll give their CEO a call; he still owes me a favor from that time I let them film onboard the TSV Minotaur."

"Thank you, Admiral. I'll see you soon."

"Goodbye," said Marcus as the call ended.

He looked through his contacts and found another number. One senator down, another ten to call. He would burn through a noticeable chunk of his political capital today.

* * *

A few minutes after his last senatorial call ended, Admiral Messer was called to the flag bridge. As soon as he entered, he could see Captain Elliot waiting for him. He went up to the captain and asked, "What am I needed for, Captain?"

"Sir, president Holden himself is on the comms. He said he wanted to talk to you."

This surprised Marcus. Usually the president didn't talk officers lower ranked than a full admiral, and If he wanted to discuss politics, he would call Marcus over the phone. Marcus told captain Elliot to put Holden on the line.

"Admiral, good to see you again," greeted Holden.

"Same to you Mr. President. I assume you're not here to just chat."

"Correct, I'm here to personally update you on the Quarian situation. After discussing it with Admiral Davis, we've come to an agreement. Every fleet in the milky way will be sending some of their stealth frigates to help investigate the Quarians' claims. While that's going on, I'll be speaking to the senate in order to gain their support," informed Holden.

Marcus considered this for a moment.

"Sir, that's great, but I don't see why you're taking the time to tell me about this."

"The reason is that you have two special missions. I'll be too busy focusing on the senate to be a diplomat. I need you to be our ambassador to the Quarians until a more permanent one is found and assigned. We also need your unique political skills. The people back home need to understand just what we are dealing with. This means your task force's viper troops will be focusing on getting evidence about these Batarians not just for the military, but also for the politicians back home," ordered the president.

This gave Marcus an idea; he knew exactly who to send on such a mission.

"I'll send the Normandy to collect this evidence. My sources suggest Shepard's name will be very eye catching to many senators. However, before I can come up with a specific mission, I'll need to get more information from the Quarians."

"That'll be fine Admiral. Right now, diplomacy takes priority over military action. By the way, due to the change in plans, you'll have to play diplomat for longer than expected. For that reason, I'm giving you more diplomatic power. You can now give foreign vessels and people temporary authorization to cross Terran borders, over rule sub federal level governments when it comes to decisions relevant to diplomacy, and have the ability to disclose any information of classification level 4 or below to foreign governments," said President Holden.

"That wonderful news. I'll continue talks with the Quarians immediately. Is there anything else you wanted to say, sir?"

"There isn't. Good luck Admiral," remarked Holden as he ended the call.

The Admiral didn't waste much time; just half an hour after that he was talking to his Quarian guest again. He spent the time between thinking up plans.

"Good to you see you again, Marcus," greeted Admiral Sharra.

"Same here. Let's get to the point. After talking with the president, I've got some ideas on how our two peoples can work together."

The Quarian admiral seemed surprised.

"We're a very small fleet compared to what we once were. I'm not sure there is much we could do for you. The only thing I can think of is engineering, but I'm not sure if we trust each other enough to share research," advised Keetal.

"What the Terran Republic is looking for is more political in nature. See, there is much about the galaxy we wish to know about," said Marcus. He then explained the investigation into the Batarians.

He waited a moment for Keetal to process that information, then continued, "So you see, what we need is information. Not about technology but about Council worlds, infrastructure, and militaries. We especially want to know more about the Batarians."

Admiral Keetal'Sharra was once again surprised and worried.

"While we appreciate what your people are doing, I'm worried about giving you this data. If the Council were to find out, they could use it as an excuse to attack us again."

"You don't need to worry about that. If the Council attacks the Quarians for essentially being a witness to a federal military investigation into large scale slavery, then that's legal grounds for war. Terran fleets can handle the Council. Our response would be swift too; attacking some one because they are a part of a military investigation counts as an act of war. I wouldn't even need the Senate's permission to launch an offensive," said Marcus with a hint of pride. The Quarian seemed less convinced.

"Again, we appreciate your willingness to defend us, but we don't really want to start a galactic war."

It seemed Marcus needed to do more. Good thing he was a diplomat now.

"That's understandable. Tell you what, how about you get to know us better before we talk about working together. Right now, we only really need info on Batarian slavery. You could simply tell us about worlds where the Batarians have lots of slaves. While we investigate that, you can take a diplomatic team to talk a tour of our worlds. Both sides would learn."

The Quarian considered this for a moment. He would have to speak to the other admirals, but it seemed very reasonable.

"I'll have to speak with the Conclave and the Admiralty about this. I think they will accept though. Give me an hour to talk with them and I'll have their answer. I can send you the data on slavery right now, however. Most of it would be considered public knowledge by the council anyways."

"See you later, Keetal," said Marcus as he left to make use of that data.

* * *

Else where in the galaxy, in the heart of galactic civilization, a different meeting was taking place.

"Fellow councilors, we have a problem on our hands," stated the Salarian.

"What do you mean, Jorvon? Not much is going on right now," said the Asari.

The turian spoke up next, "Councilor Riala is correct. Turian patrol fleets haven't reported anything."

The Batarian councilor kept silent.

Councilor Jorvon opened an audio file on his omni-tool.

He explained, "this is a call between the Quarian admirals that was recorded by the STG." He pressed play.

_Audio File 3112_

"Keetal, what have you learned about the aliens?"

"I've learned quite a bit. They are in fact humans, from Earth. They claim that their 'extinction' was a trick used to hide from an ancient enemy."

"That sounds hard to believe."

"I know that, but they are quite alive and well. They are very clearly human as well. Not only that, they say they are willing to help us. They, like us, hate slavery and are willing to try to the billions of our people stuck in slavery. We have also been invited to their worlds as diplomats and I think we should accept. They even have friendly AIs." The audio cut off after that.

"This was all the VI could record without risking exposure. Very troubling information," explained Jorvon.

Councilor Riala had a worried look on her face while the turian and batarian councilors looked angry.

Riala was next to speak, "this isn't good. If the Quarians can settle worlds, then they could become a galactic threat. With these humans helping them out, they could at the very least upset the balance of power. I'm sorry Hadrian, looks like you were right."

"Yes, the Quarians are trouble. We should have arrested their tiny fleet when I suggested it. However, we can still do that. If we hurry, then we can take them in before they get too friendly with these Humans," advised Councilor Hadrian.

The Batarian finally spoke.

"It seems these humans aren't only aggressive, but also racist and close minded. The hegemony has earned its place in the galaxy and we won't have our culture questioned again. Councilor Jorvon, what are the chances that the humans are lying about their nuclear war?" he asked.

The salarian took some time to think. He remembered the time he visited Earth as a researcher. The deep blue oceans and the ruins of a once prosperous civilization.

"It's very likely. I've seen Earth before; no way that was fake. No race would just throw away all those cities just to hide and the skeletons we found were real. There wouldn't even be a place to hide in; we've never detected any shelters or bunkers with living humans in them and their technology as very much pre-eezo. They wouldn't be able to travel beyond their star system. Councilor Karm makes a good point." He took another pause to think some more.

He came up with an idea, then continued, "The humans Admiral Keetal found could come from a generational ship. Pre-FTL species sometimes experiment with sub-light travel between stars. A species facing nuclear war could try to escape to another star system with such a vessel."

This made the Councilors even more worried. Even after 2,000 years people still remembered the Krogan rebellions. Any race that waged nuclear war was a concern. Any race that made AIs was also a concern. A race that did both, was hostile to a Council race's culture, and was friendly with a fleet of galactic outlaws was more than a concern; it was a threat.

Councilor Riala spoke, "This is worse than I thought. We need to deal with the Quarians now. I think a joint fleet would be best. I can get us the Asari fourth and third fleets, along with our best diplomats. Get in quick, arrest them, and talk with the humans."

Hadrian wanted in too, "The Primarch will want to deal with this immediately. The 23rd, 30th, and 11th patrol fleets are close to the Quarian Migrant Fleet. I could probably also get the second through fifth fleets as well. With this show of force, the humans won't dare try to stop us."

Batarian Hegemony wouldn't want to be left out. Karm Bah'kath weighted in, "The hegemony is also interested in this. The Quarians would make good slaves, and the humans need to be monitored. I will not accept racism from primitives who nearly nuked themselves into extinction."

The Salarian was more concerned than his colleagues.

"The Salarian Union prefers to be prepared, yet we don't know anything about these Humans. We will keep our fleets hidden for now, but we can send our stealth cruisers and STG ground teams," said Jorvon.

With the Council in agreement, councilor Riala concluded,

"Then we have a plan. Once the Quarians are captured, they will be given to the Hegemony. If the Humans resist, they will be subdued by the Hierarchy and become a client race, otherwise the Asari Republics with be responsible for integrating them with galactic society. It seems we have a lot of work to do."

* * *

The Council wasn't the only ones who were about to have a lot of work to do. On the stealth frigate TSV Normandy, one lieutenant Colonel Sofia Shepard was about to receive a mission.

She was in her quarters on the Normandy's barracks, admiring a model of the Normandy itself. That ship had an over all cylindrical hull, with thick wings on the sides that gave it a wedge shaped outline when viewed from above or below. The scale model only had the Normandy's primary gun turrets: four large plasma turrets found on top and below the winglets and four railgun turrets on the main hull itself.

Also modeled were the coaxial weapons. Each winglet housed a forward facing celestial lance while the central hull had an ARC gun. Without turrets, these weapons were harder to get a good shot with, but when it did happen, the Normandy's bite was as powerful as a cruiser's guns.

As she was looking at the Normandy model's torpedo tubes, her personal comm system rung. All viper command officers were required to carry a military comm device with them in case they had to be reached immediately, a common situation for terran special forces.

"Hello, this is Lieutenant Colonel Shepard speaking."

"Good day Colonel. I'm Rear Admiral Messer, and I need you for a special mission. I'll you brief you personally on the Iowa. Sending over coordinates now," he said as her comm device notified her of the Iowa's location.

"I'll tell the Captain Archer to head there immediately. We're about half a day's worth of FTL from you." she replied.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow, Shepard." As soon as the call ended, she began to make her way to the Normandy's CIC.

**14 hours later**

The next morning, the Normandy finally came out of FTL and docked with the Iowa. As Colonel Shepard entered the Iowa, she found a Major waiting to take her to the Admiral. It wasn't long before she was entering a conference room. Already seated was Admiral Messer himself. She wasn't sure what to expect of him as he only made admiral recently.

The Admiral gestured for her to sit down too. Once she did, he said, "Welcome to the TSV Iowa Shepard. I'm kind of in a rush, so I'll get right to it. A little more than a day ago, we finally made first contact with aliens. They've taught us quite a bit about what this cycle's galaxy is like, and the Terran Republic doesn't like all of it. The aliens we met, called Quarians, were a refugee fleet running from what they claim to be a slaver empire, the Batarian Hegemony. Since we must investigate claims of slavery, I thought you would be good for the job."

He gave her sometime to absorb that revelation before giving orders.

He continued, "Your orders are to investigate slavery within the Batarians' home system, the Harsa System. The System has four rocky planets and a gas giant. Their home world is Khar'shan, the second planet from the star. A complete info packet on the Batarians and the rest of the galaxy will be given to you. You should read it before coming up with any plans. The operation is classified as a level five. As for what you need to find, anything about the scale and operations of their slavery would be valuable. Another part of this mission to is to let people back home know what's going on, so try to take pictures and video if you can. Also figure out how the slaves are treated. Any questions?"

Shepard thought for a moment before answering. There were two things she wanted to know.

"Are we allowed to interfere with the Batarians?"

"You can capture anyone you believe to be slaver, but make sure I can't be traced back to you or any other Terran. You also can't kill anyone unless they attack unprovoked. However, if someone is both a slaver and is particularly cruel you may interrogate then with more harsh methods. I understand that you specialize in such interrogations." explained Admiral Messer.

"Yes sir. One last question. If you don't mind telling, why did you pick the Normandy for this mission? The Midway is just as good of a stealth ship and was much closer to here."

The Admiral cracked a smile and answered.

"Colonel I'm sorry to say that choosing you was political."

"Political, sir?" she questioned.

"You see, you kind of have a… reputation amongst the senators back home. Most of them support you, but a good amount of them hate your guts; they're mostly anti-militarists. I want to catch the senate's attention so I'm sending you. Once they hear your name, they won't be able to ignore it," Messer explained.

This confused Shepard. She didn't remember wronging any politicians recently. The last time she talked to a senator was when she was assigned to guard him. Maybe a politician was friends with one of the criminals she dealt with.

She decided to ask the Admiral about it.

"Wait, what did I do to piss off part of the senate?"

"They tend to disagree with how you handle the crime lords and slavers you find. One of them said, quote, 'That psychopathic Colonel needs to be kicked out of the Navy. She's nothing but a sadistic serial killer the military appeases by giving her victims no one will miss.' Another senator called you, 'A torturer who would be more fit as the villain of a historical fiction horror movie than as a modern day person who isn't facing a death sentence.'"

Shepard's confusion turned to amusement. It seemed she now had an image to maintain. Maybe in the future she could try to scare the next senator she had to guard.

"Well I think those stuffy politicians should give torturing a try. It can be real fun; nothing else lets you understand how the mind works better than breaking one apart and seeing how it ticks," advised Shepard.

Admiral Messer looked at her strangely. His face seemed to be a mixture of respect and unease. He stared for a few seconds before responding.

"I see… well that's an interesting view, Shepard. Anyways, if that's all then you're excused. Good hunting Colonel," he said as Shepard got up and headed back to the Normandy.

No more than ten minutes later and Colonel Shepard found herself heading to an alien system to spy on some aliens. Maybe she could even learn how an alien mind worked.

* * *

Back on the Iowa, Marcus was talking with Keetal'Sharra. It seemed the Quarians have finally decided.

"So, what did the Conclave think?" he asked.

"They have agreed to send a diplomatic mission to your worlds. The admirals decided to send me and Admiral Han'Taga vas Tontay. He's the Admiral of the Heavy fleet, our military fleet. We would like to know how many guards we can bring," asked Keetal.

Marcus thought about it for a moment. Too many and it would be hard to keep track of them all; too little and the Quarians might think the Terrans to be paranoid.

"Each admiral may bring a platoon's worth of soldiers. That's about 30." He thought a platoon would be appropriate. Large enough to fight with, but small enough that they could be dealt with after some time.

"That's very reasonable. I'll need to be taken back to the Flotilla to organize this."

"The TSV Bulldog can take you back. Once your group is ready, it'll take you back here. As my flagship, I'm using the Iowa as my diplomatic vessel.

After Admiral Sharra left, Marcus made some calls of his own. Various local officials had to be informed and prepared. Next, he called his contacts within various companies to update himself on what types of trade with the Quarians would be best. Another group that he spoke to were all the senators he had called the day before. They told him that the President had briefed them on first contact and asked for recommendations on an ambassador. It seemed Marcus had secured the Senate's favor, although the decision itself was in Holden's hands.

The diplomatic mission was about to start, and Admiral Marcus Messer felt good about it. He had set everything up right; now all he had left to do was wait for the Bulldog to return with his guests.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I changed the cover pic to something that I drew myself just for this story. The ship in it is the TSV Iowa herself.

This one took a while to write since I decided to play through Mass Effect 1-3 before continuing. Once I started thinking about the Quarians, I realized I needed more info about the Council races. The Mass Effect wiki didn't seem to have this info, but fortunately the games themselves did. Shepard is a bit different in this story. She's still going to be a hero, just one that has a darker side. Next chapter is going to be more focused on world building than character development because I need a well defined galaxy before plunging it in war.


	6. Chapter 4: Guests

**Chapter 4: Guests**

It had been six hours since the Normandy arrived in the Batarian home system. Within the ship's barracks, a certain lieutenant colonel was alone in the war room. Infront of her was a map of Khar'shan itself with many buildings and facilities on its surface highlighted. In those buildings were both her prey and her prey's victims. Sofia Shepard smiled as she thought about the lives she would save and the ones she would destroy. It gave her a sense of power.

Enough dreaming, it was time for doing. She opened her comm device, joined battalion comms, and spoke.

"All company commanders of the 103rd Viper Battalion, report to the war room. I repeat, all company commanders to the war room." It was time to hunt some slavers.

It wasn't long before four captains joined Shepard in the war room. After everyone took their seats, the briefing began. Shepard pulled up a map of Khar'shan. The world had large land masses with narrow oceans snaking across its surface. The two largest continents were at the southern and northern side of the planet. Nearer to its equator, an even mix of land and sea could be found.

"Admiral Messer himself gave us this mission. We are to investigate the slavery going on in this system, and the best way to learn about that is to go planet side. I'd usually prefer to do some more recon, but luckily for us aliens don't seem too fond of the underground. Hiding won't be much of a challenge," said Shepard as she brought up diagrams of large batarian complexes.

"These facilities represent slavery in its worst form; that means it's our job to cause trouble. Intercepted transmissions from these places show that they're the Hegemony's state owned 'slave production factories.'" She paused to examine the worried look on everybody else's face. She then pulled up 3d models of various cells, cages, and laboratories before saying, "Yep, that's Batarian for breeding camps. In this place, most slaves are forced to reproduce while others undergo dangerous and painful experiments." The captains seemed disgusted now.

"I'd like to meet whoever runs these places and congratulate them before beating them till they scream. You guys are going to make that happen."

The company commanders seemed to like that idea.

She began to give orders, "For now, we're targeting one on the southern continent. First and second company will handle it, third company is going to gather evidence on other aspects of batarian slavery, and fourth company is going be our reserve force. Your secondary objective is to get clear, publicly releasable evidence of slavery. This can be anything from videos to testimonies. However, understand that every slave you reveal yourselves to has to be evacuated to the Normandy."

The captain of the Third Company had a question, "Ma'am, what do we do if the slave can't be evacuated?"

"Well then you'll have to kill the slave, so make sure it doesn't get to that point," replied Shepard. "Anyone got any other questions?"

No one spoke.

"Then get back to your troops and prepare for the mission. We move out in five hours under the cover of night."

Five hours later and 700 soldiers of the 103rd Viper battalion found themselves plunging towards Khar'shan in their cloaked drop pods. Just minutes after they shot out of the Normandy, the pods slammed into the ground and kept going another two kilometers. Then the Viper soldiers began digging; it was time to give the Batarians their first taste of true subterranean warfare.

* * *

**Hope System - TSV Iowa**

Back in Terran space, a more friendly visit was about to take place. The two Quarian admirals were about to be the first aliens to take a step on Terran soil. Said admirals were currently meeting with Admiral Marcus Messer. The three of them were currently in one of the Iowa's hangars.

"Admirals, this is a T/A-105 Valkyrie assault transport," said Marcus referring to the 30 meter long craft in front of them. The transport had a boxy passenger section in the middle with a more streamlined cockpit at the front. Towards the rear, two large rotating engine pods provided most of the forward thrust while four smaller ones embedded within two winglets acted as a counterbalance. Together, the six engines gave the Valkyrie both great speed and the ability to hover.

However, the most eye catching feature wasn't the engines – it was the weapons. Right behind and below the pilots were two 30mm rotary railgun turrets, one on each side. Above the passenger compartment, two missile pods could be extended from the spine of the aerospace craft; a total of 18 air-to-ground missiles could take out whatever the 30mm guns couldn't.

"Quite a lot of fire power for a shuttle," commented Keetal.

The one in front of them had 65 seats; just enough for the admirals and the two quarian platoons.

Marcus gave out instructions, "Before we start our tour of Dracodor city, we'll first meet with Governor Amanda Talia. She's the governor of Terran space in this part of the galaxy." With that said, all 63 people entered the Valkyrie and soon found themselves looking out the windows at the planet itself.

Keetal was the first to speak, "This planet seems lifeless. It's covered in Ice and there isn't any plant life on it. How come this is your capital? How do you even live here?"

Admiral Han'Taga had questions of his own, "The entire planet is dark. Do you not at least have a military presence here? Most races protect their capitals, even provincial ones."

As they got closer and closer to the planet, what the Quarians said seemed true. Neither Han nor Keetal could detect any sign of life or civilization.

"It's quite simple. We Terrans aren't like other races. It seems we are the only ones who build our cities mostly underground. It may seem strange to you, but sprawling surface cities are just as strange to us; we last built them over a millennium ago," replied Marcus.

It took some time for the Quarians to process this. These humans truly seemed alien. Why would any race build cities underground? It seemed like a waste of effort. They decided to ask Marcus about it.

Marcus gave them a 'of course we do' look before replying, "Why wouldn't we? It allows us to colonize most planets as the ground insolates people from extreme heat, cold, radiation, or toxic atmospheres. On more habitable planets, living underground preserves the natural ecosystem. I don't know about other races, but we humans find nature to be relaxing. It helps our people to have an entire biosphere to visit for vacation. It also helps our biologists with their research."

The Quarians considered this. It seemed to be a reasonable idea, if requiring advanced engineering. Why hadn't they thought about it? Quarians were quite good engineers. However, it still seemed wasteful for a species that could settle garden worlds.

As the transport entered the atmosphere, Marcus asked a Question of his own.

"I was wondering, how do the other races in this galaxy deal with orbital bombardment?"

This caught the Quarians off guard.

Han'Taga didn't understand, "What do you mean? It's just like any other weapon. If they use it on you, you use it on them." Perhaps the humans where a more peaceful race and didn't understand war too well.

"I meant how you protect against it. For us, it's simple. Just stay underground and defend long enough for a friendly fleet to relieve the sieged planet. No regular naval shell can penetrate a kilometer or two of rock and remain intact enough to punch through our cities' armor. At that point, defending the underground is simple; every cubic inch of ground is urban environment and air support can't fit underground. Defenders advantage at this point is insanely huge. Every terran knows that."

The Quarians had no response; no one thought a species could just ignore orbital bombardment. No one had thought a ground battle could get harder once _your side_ achieved orbital superiority. No military even had plans for a three dimensional ground war without air power being a factor.

Admiral Keetal'Sharra was shocked at the implications while Admiral Taga tried to do some calculations. However, he found that he couldn't know what that type of battle would even look like.

He didn't have long to think before the transport finally reached the space port. As they walked out onto the landing platform, they could see a large crowd of people. Even more impressive for the Quarians was the view. From the raised platform they could see the large ocean and the ring that seemed to hold it back. Off in the distance, storms raged in the sky where freezing cold air met the warmer winds of the ocean.

A short, blonde woman was there to meet them.

"Welcome to Dracodor City," said Governor Talia.

Soon they found themselves in the Governor's office. Here they were told about the planet and interesting places to visit. It was a short talk, just ten minutes long, and when they were done, the group said goodbye and left.

"So, Marcus, where is this visitor's center she spoke of?" asked Keetal.

"Your standing in it. Like I said, our cities tend to be underground. The surface part is usually the visitor center plus anything else that might interest travelers. Here you can find all sorts of things from restaurants to hotels to museums. Most of those establishments are in the ring like wall. The buildings inside it make up the visitor's center," Marcus explained.

He then gave a suggestion, "We should head to the cultural center first. It should answer some of your questions."

The Quarians would learn much from the tour: movies, history, religion, and many other aspects of Terran society. It seemed personal weapons and armor were a big thing in Terran society. That seemed strange to the Quarians; even Turians households weren't that well armed.

Soon they would get their answer. They reached the last and most grand room of them all: the exhibit on militarism. The room was large and circular, larger than any of the previous ones. The space inside seemed more fitting for turian frigate's docking bay than a cultural exhibit. Why such space was needed soon became apparent.

Once inside, they could see swords from all ages and cultures, guns too. Thousands of these weapons lined the walls while various body armors formed a circle around the center area. It gave the Quarians a sense of human war and its evolution. Large paintings and artwork showcased battlefields and warriors, giving the Admirals an idea of how humans viewed the brutality, honor, and horror of war.

For the Quarians, the most interesting of these weapons was the high tech melee ones.

"Why does it seem like bladed weapons made a resurgence?" Han asked.

"That's quite simple. Swords are useful for the close quarters combat that can happen in narrow underground tunnels. They're also great for urban ambushes."

A short description detailed how these swords worked. There were high tech versions of all sorts of blades, from katanas to scimitars. They were all based on the same tech, though. The hilt contained a source of dark energy which was used to create a very narrow, about a couple dozen molecules wide, subspace field right in front of the blade's edge. In this small area of subspace, the complex laws of physics start to break down into a more basic form. The effect of that is that molecular bonds start to break down, making what ever is being cut far weaker than usual.

The central area, was different. It contained various vehicles from 20th century Sherman tanks to 30th century Cronos walkers. They were arrayed to appear frozen in battle, a free-for-all of grand scale. Holographic effects such as fire, explosions, and smoke gave the viewer a sense of the firepower of each machine. Another sight greeted the Quarians when they looked up.

Above them, hundreds of aircraft hung from the ceiling, dogfighting in what fighter pilots called a fur ball or 'flying' lower in attack runs. Projectors created holograms of tracers, smoke trails, bright flares and lit engines. One could feel the speed at which these fighters, bombers, and gunships flew just from the special effects alone.

This had a greater effect of Admiral Han'Taga. As a military man, he understood the sheer diversity of weapons here. Thousands of individual weapons and not a single two were identical. He could see that they were placed and organized by culture. There must have been hundreds of cultures displayed here.

He thought it was quite interesting for this to be the culture center's main attraction.

It wasn't long after he started looking around that he found something he didn't understand.

"What are these 'Reapers' mentioned here. I remember the history exhibit mentioning them, and they seemed to change your race's whole military culture."

"Han, the Reapers changed everything. They're the ancient threat we humans had to hide from. It's a long story, but I'll send what we know about them to your omni-tools," replied Marcus.

The Quarians read through what was sent. It was hard to see their reaction behind their face plates, but Marcus could work out that they were shocked. Understandable, Reapers were quite a scary thing after all.

Keetal and Han themselves were blown away by what they were reading. Prothean extinction, AI hacking prothean tech, synthetic two kilometer long space monsters, even bigger Reapers, and the fact that they would come back soon. It seemed the surprises never ended with these humans.

"That's… uh…" Speechless. Absolutely speechless.

Marcus had more words to say,

"Yes, it was a big shock to our ancestors too. I hope you now understand why we Terrans carry so many weapons. When our enemy is as great as this, even civilians seek the feeling of safety being armed can bring. It's why all our buildings can withstand small arms fire, why the average house has an armory, and why civilian vehicles manufacturers advertise weapons mounts or armor thickness."

To the Quarians, the Terran Republic just made a whole lot more sense, while the universe just got a whole lot crazier.

* * *

**Harsa System – Khar'shan**

Back on the Batarian home world, Shepard was also preparing to turn some aliens' lives upside down. These ones, however, would receive a much more militaristic introduction to humanity.

"Good job everyone, just keep on digging. We should link up with Second Company soon." She turned to Major Kreigsman. "Hey Jacob, go tell Captain Gates that we linked up with the Normandy. She'll want to know that Third Company made it safely to planet side."

"Yes ma'am," he replied before heading to First Company's command post. Shepard thought he was a good XO, if a little too formal at times. He wouldn't even call her Shepard. It was always "ma'am" or "Colonel." He reminded Shepard about those turians she read about earlier.

She took this time to consider her surroundings. This was the early stages of war, the calm before the storm. Every Terran soldier knew it: the scent of dirt and rock being dug into, the traces of newly exposed gases soon to be filtered out, and the occasional sound of some liquid dripping through the rock. This was the time before tunnels are armored and weapons start firing.

Even though she was on an alien world, something very few had done before, Shepard felt at home underground.

It was then that she got a notification. It seemed Command Sergeant Major Thomas finished his inspection. She opened his message.

_From: CSM Thomas_

_To: LTC Shepard_

_Colonel Shepard, the NCOs all say their soldiers are in fighting shape. Our soldiers are ready to fight, however First Platoon, Second Company reports some of their grenades were damaged during the orbital drop. Their captain assures me that she can manage though. Other than that, we have no issues. I do, however, recommend Fifth Platoon be given time to do some training. They got some new transfers a week ago and would like to fight together some more before the real thing._

It wasn't too bad. The operation was supposed to be quiet anyway; there wasn't much need for grenades. She wrote a simple reply and sent it.

Next to do was check up on the cyberwarfare detachment. These guys had to be in top shape; for this mission, they were the most important part. She made her way to the cyberwarfare center of her headquarters. As she walked, she passed dozens of tunnel and passages going in every direction. At the end of the hall, she entered a large computer room.

There wasn't much else that could compare to a terran cyberwarfare center. The wires and terminals along with data feeds and lights made the place seem like a research center with militaristic tones.

A major saluted her. This officer wasn't your average cyber specialist. Unlike most of them, her file said she was organic born, not AI.

"Major Katalia, what have you found so far?" inquired Shepard.

"Quite a bit, Colonel. The Quarians' codex was right; these aliens don't have any AI or even neural implants. The closest they get are medical implants, but nothing to help them in a fight, physical or virtual," replied Katalia.

"That'll make our mission a lot easier. If that's the case, then I want you to figure out how to hack batarian systems and networks. This could be our way into their compound," Shepard ordered.

As an officer, she tried to not be overconfident, but these batarians sure made it hard. No combat neural implants or AIs at all? She landed on this planet expecting to fight soldiers, not over glorified civilians with ancient firewalls.

She felt she was ready to write her initial report. Once she was back in her office, it took just ten minutes for the report to be done.

She wrote to Admiral Messer about the breeding camps, the live experimentation, and the various videos, books, and articles taken from the Hegemony's public extranet. Some told stories of slave escapees and the harsh tortures that awaited them upon capture, some gave advice on the management and use of slaves, while others detailed the psychology of slavery. Countless different sides of the same evil. It gave her inspiration and would hopefully give Admiral Messer revulsion.

She knew the Admiral's reputation; his values and sense of duty was well known amongst Terrans. She could only hope that his hatred of slavery and oppression would convince him to unleash her upon these batarians. Lieutenant Colonel Shepard was a predator who just found an endless herd of prey.

She highlighted which parts of the report were fit for public release and pressed send.

* * *

**Hope system – Cryonis**

Marcus was waiting on a bench while his Quarian guests explored the park. It was a calm, relaxing nine square kilometers of land filled with trees, flowers, and the occasional small animal. Hills surrounding the central basin helped keep the city outside out of sight.

His calm was broken by a ringtone. It seemed Colonel Shepard sent him as report.

Since he had nothing else to do for almost a full hour, he decided now would be a good time to read it. It wasn't long before his relaxation turned to disgust and anger. Until now, he didn't realize the true scale and cruelty of the batarians' "cultural heritage." Something had to be done about them.

It was once again time to put his contacts in the senate to good use.

He quickly used his authority as a rear admiral to declassify certain parts of the report, citing recommendations from the commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Shepard. Then he prepared some emails and made some calls. An hour later, and the news was spreading from senator to senator like wildfire.

Another hour after that the Terran senate was ablaze with outrage, anger, and debate.

President Holden would be in for a surprise; he went to present his diplomatic plan to the senate only to walk into a heated discussion on whether to declare war on a foreign power. It seemed diplomacy wasn't on the senate's mind at this time.

Marcus himself was also thinking militaristically, though not in a war hawk way. The final part of the Quarians' tour of the Hope system was on the military world of Sparta.

As they approached the planet, the Quarians could see that this was a true garden world. There were small seas and oceans around the planet, while the landmasses were mostly brown and yellow. Still, a significant amount of green could be seen, and narrow bands of white and grey mountain ranges doted the continents.

"That is Sparta, named after a city state from thousands of years ago. This is one of the worlds where we train our armies and fleets. The planet has four major sectors; alpha, beta, delta, and gamma. Each one is usually controlled by a different planetary army paired with a naval force. Each unit trains for a period of one or two months before another gets their turn," explained Marcus.

The scale of it all impressed the Quarian Admirals. An entire garden world dedicated to nothing but the military. It was unheard of in council space.

Once they landed, they were given a simple show case of various common military equipment and vehicles, along with live fire demonstrations and maneuvers. Nothing that couldn't be learned on the internet, but far more exciting than reading an article.

The first thing they saw was a mechanized battalion in action. The troops moved across a large grassland area, infantry first while the tanks followed. Right behind the tanks were infantry fighting vehicles, ready to rush ahead and provide fire support if needed.

Soon a flight of fighters flew overhead and launched missiles. The air-to-ground weapons hit the target area, taking out some automated SAM launchers. As soon as the fighters disappeared, a wing of larger aerospace craft swooped down from orbit, the front of their shields encased by red-orange plasma as they entered the atmosphere. The bombers and gunships flattened the target area before pulling up and heading back to orbit.

By now the ground forces were approaching the objection. The IFVs fired into the area while infantry moved in. The tanks covered their flanks.

A few more exercises were done.

By the end of the day, the admirals had seen five hours of military action. Keetal and Han agreed, the Terrans sure knew how to make a first contact interesting.

Han'Taga was most intrigued by the Terran military. Their Tiger main battle tanks seemed more armored than even the Turians', the only other military to use such heavy vehicles. Turian tanks were lighter and used mass effect to hover. These Terran tanks on the other hand relied on metal tracks to move, and had a bulky, curved look. They also packed a powerful gun in addition to missiles, something that the Turians didn't do; hover tanks wouldn't be able to handle the recoil.

He also took notice of their strike craft. The F 16 Shrike fighter had a central body, with two large engine pods mounted near the rear for a total of three engines. The cockpit towards the front of the craft. Small wings extended from the two engine pods, with a 30mm fixed rotary cannon on each wingtip. The nose was also armed; embedded within it was a single plasma cannon, fueled by plasma from its engines themselves. The fighter also had two missile pods to the left and right of its cockpit. Its final weapon was the torpedo rail mounted under it. Very well armed for a fighter.

This trip had Admiral Taga convinced; the Terran military wasn't a force anyone should mess with.

Admiral Keetal'Sharra learned a different lesson. He took notice of the rich history and culture of humanity, along with it's engineering marvels. He could tell that this a diverse species, with countless different ways of thinking. No other race would be as flexible, adaptable, and unpredictable.

The Quarians and Marcus headed back to Cryonis where they spent the night in a hotel.

Elsewhere in the galaxy, another display of military force was underway.

* * *

**Trebia System – Menae**

Above the moon Menae, a large fleet was gathered. Fleets from different races came together to form an armada of a scale rarely seen in council space. 50,000 ships of all shapes and sizes orbited Palaven's moon. There were star shaped asari cruisers and dreadnoughts, winged vessels of the Turian Hierarchy, the curvy aquatic looking ships of the Salarian Union, and the blocky modular ships of the Hegemony.

The largest of these warships was the asari superdreadnought, the Destiny Deliverance. She was as wide and tall as her predecessor, the Destiny Ascension, but was far longer. At a length of five kilometers, it followed the Asari doctrine of having flagships be as powerful as the rest of their fleet. Unlike the Ascension, the Destiny Deliverance had eight, one kilometer fins instead of four. These structures housed all the subsystems that weren't the weapons system, allowing the full length of the ship to be used for its spinal mass accelerators.

The multiple five kilometer long guns were arranged in a ring around the ships large central gap. Each opposing pair of guns would be fired after another pair, creating a constant fire rate of one volley per second. Each volley of two shells was more than capable of tearing a dreadnought apart.

The turians had their own symbol of power here, though not in ship form. Their home world glowed bright in the background, reminding everyone that a turian was in command.

On the turian flagship, the Pride of Palaven, an officer gave a report.

"Admiral, high command just sent out a notice. The last of the invasion fleets will be ready in half a day. Most of our turian and asari troops are ready, but the salarian STG is still finishing up with their preparations."

Admiral Gaius Tivarus smiled to himself. The preparations had gone well, and they were ahead of schedule. Soon he would be known as the man who captured the Migrant Fleet and commander of the largest military force ever assembled within the last 2,000 years. He could move out as soon as those salarians spies finished up their work.

"That's good news captain. Soon those suit rats will be pacified for good, and, if need be, the humans too. We'll all be heroes and live forever in the history books." His words gave everyone on the bridge a smile. Morale was high and he could feel it. In his opinion, these humans wouldn't dare fight, but it was good to be prepared.

In just half a day's time, history would be made, but not in a way the Council could've imagined.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** It took a while to get here, but I think I finally have enough of a world to write a war in. Hopefully I detailed the Terran military enough so that people at least have an idea or clue of what it's like. This chapter had a lot of world building and exposition, so I'm probably going to have far more action in the next one.


	7. Chapter 5: Beginnings of a War

**Chapter 5: Beginnings of a War**

Marcus and the Quarians woke up to a bright morning sun. The large hotel rooms felt unusual to the Quarians, who were used to much smaller quarters, but were still very comfy. Feeling quite refreshed, everyone gathered up and headed back to the space port.

"Hope you guys enjoyed your time in the Hope system. Next, we're going to visit the Neopolis system. It's the largest business hub among our colonies; you'll be able to get a sense of what kind of economy the Terran Republic has and the benefits of trading with us," said Marcus as their Valkyrie transport took off.

"Where is this Neopolis system?" asked Keetal

"It's actually very close to your migrant fleet, only about a minute of FTL travel between the two places," replied Marcus

Once he was back onboard the Iowa, he headed towards the flag bridge. However, halfway there he was called into a private comms room. It seemed the President wanted to talk to him again.

"Hello again, Admiral."

"Hello sir, did you need me for something?" Marcus asked.

"I was just calling to inform you that whatever it is you've done seems to have gotten the Senate quite fired up. They all but demanded that you be the ambassador not just to the quarians, but also the rest of the galaxy. It seems they trust you to be harsh enough against the slavers. No offense, but I'd prefer our voice to the galaxy to not be a military officer. The senators were very clear, however, so you get the job."

"I'm honored sir. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Yes, the senate has yet to decide on what to do about these batarians, so understand that you need to keep both war and peace as options we have until they choose one."

"Got it, sir," replied Marcus.

His job seemed easy enough. With the powers of both an ambassador and an admiral, his position was very flexible.

He took a moment to reflect of his progress so far. He was pleased with the Quarian situation. They seemed impressed with the Terran Republic; getting some trade deals and info out of them wouldn't be hard. The batarians on the other hand were going to be a much different story.

Marcus, however, didn't worry. Against a bunch of slavers, he would have the political backing behind him to do whatever it took. It would take quite a bit of diplomacy and a lot more information than he currently had, but he had his skills and he knew where to get the info.

While the Rear Admiral thought about diplomacy, a different Admiral was thinking about war.

* * *

**Trebia System – Menae**

He went over the numbers in his head. 50,000 warships and seven billion soldiers. There was enough military force under his command to fight the Krogan Rebellions again. In the last couple days, he had talked with more galactic leaders then he had ever met before. One of them was even going to travel with him.

The Asari Councilor herself was onboard the Deliverance. She wanted to ensure talks with the humans could begin as soon as possible and insisted that she be onsite as the Council's diplomat.

He didn't personally care much. Diplomacy wasn't his focus. He went back to planning.

He looked the maps. The unsuspecting Quarians were still in that system; the humans were probably there too. He thanked the spirits that uncivilized races couldn't counter tracing devices.

Admiral Gaius Tivarus was sure that he would return a hero. He opened comms lines and spoke.

"This is Admiral Tivarus. All sections report your status," he ordered.

Reports came in, sounding like music to his ears; every group that reported their status a note in the song of war.

The reports finally ended, and he knew he was ready. With one fateful order, history would be made.

"All ships, head for the relay. We'll regroup after each relay jump before the next."

Soon, his forces reached the Trebia relay, then the next one, and then another. An hour after he moved out, the massive council armada found itself at the last relay of their journey.

The ships sailed onward.

* * *

**Neopolis System**

It was at this moment that Marcus got a call. It was from Commodore Pike, and it was marked urgent.

"Hannah? What's this about?" he asked.

"Sir, a massive council fleet just came through the relay! They've got over 50,000 ships and the Destiny Deliverance herself. Their admiral, a turian, just sent us a message demanding we hand over the Migrant Fleet and that all quarian vessels are to shut down their engines and reactors or be destroyed. The quarians have complied so far, and the turian Admiral has given us 20 minutes to respond or he'll start shooting."

So much for his plans, Marcus thought. He considered his options.

"The president has made me our ambassador to the galaxy, so I'll talk with him. Tell the turian that I'll be there in ten minutes. I need a little time."

"Yes Admiral."

It wasn't long before he was talking to President Holden again.

"The Council did what?!," shouted Holden.

"They sent a fleet sir. It's mostly made up of corvettes and light frigates. They do have one cruiser, however. They've demanded we give them the quarians or they'll open fire," explained Marcus.

"Can we get the quarians ships to safety?" Holden asked.

"Not easily sir, they've been forced to keep their engines powered down. They're practically hostages. With their fusion reactors and engines offline, they've got no FTL, weapons, or eezo cores. Only their capacitor bank powered kinetic barriers are up."

"Damn. Well what do we have? 50,000 ships is a lot ships, admiral."

"Most of our nearby vessels are about half an hour from the Hawking system. Other than about half of my task force, anything else we could bring before the 20 minute deadline are just going to be corvette squadrons."

"Where's the other half of task force Iowa?" asked the president with a little panic in his voice.

"Since the quarians had been in our space for days before we met them, I sent them out to search for quarian scout ships. They've been spending the last couple of days checking up on dark energy signatures and sending any quarians back to their migrant fleet. The Quarians don't have widespread FTL comms, so we have to tell the scouts to go back ourselves," explained Marcus.

"What a mess. So how would a battle play out?"

"Within the deadline, I'll be able to get about 50 ships into the system. From what our scanners show and what the quarians have told us, it's enough to fight until reinforcements get there. We just need to cover the Migrant Fleet's retreat. Once they're safe, we can just jump out of the system."

The President paced around bit, thinking about Marcus's plan.

"Ok admiral, that sounds good. I'll have to tell the senate about this. I'll also have to get the rest of the military ready." Marcus interrupted.

"That's great, but I really should go. Something tells me the turian admiral isn't patient."

"You're right. Good luck Admiral," Holden said.

Marcus didn't have much time left. He had just five minutes before until his ten were up. There was only one other thing left to do. He made his way to the where his Quarian guests where.

When he reached their area of the barracks, the quarians seemed to be in a good mood. Unfortunately, he would have to break the news.

"Admirals, I need to speak with you two privately," he told them.

They were surprised and a bit uncertain. What could the Terrans suddenly want? Once in a private meeting room, they began to talk.

"What's this about Marcus? Aren't we still a few minutes out from Neopolis?" asked Keetal.

"Our destinations changed. I'm sorry to say, but it seems the Citadel Council has found your fleet. A multi-species force of over 50,000 ships have jumped into the Hawking system demanding the Migrant Fleet's surrender. We only have a few minutes until we exit FTL so there's no time to argue. In order to save your people, I'll need your backing. Do I have it?"

The quarian admirals had little choice or time.

"We'll back you, just do what you can to help."

As soon as that was said, the Quarians were patched into Terran FTL comms while Marcus headed back to the bridge.

As soon as he got back into his command chair, a voice called out. "All hands, exiting FTL in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

When the Iowa dropped out of FTL, almost every Council ship trained their guns on her.

"Open a comm to the Council flagship and broadcast this to the Senate" Marcus ordered. His ship's quantum entanglement communicator linked up to the one in Bastion Naval Base. The base acted as a relay to send the broadcast to the QEC on New Eden itself. Both the President and the Senate would witness this historic moment.

Soon after that, he was staring at the face of a turian.

"Are you the human ambassador?" asked the turian.

"Yes, I'm Rear Admiral Marcus Messer and I speak for the Terran Republic. Who are you?"

"I am Admiral Tivarus of the Turian Empire. I act with the authority of the Citadel Council, the galaxy's governing body. I've come to arrest the criminal Quarian fleet who have ran into your territory," informed Tivarus.

Marcus already didn't like this guy. He seemed arrogant and full of himself. Bad traits for a military officer, especially one commanding a fleet.

"As far as we can tell, the Quarians are no criminals. Please, explain what their crimes are."

"The Quarian Migrant Fleet is filled with thieves, smugglers, and other criminals. Don't be deceived, these people are liars and frauds and quite dangerous."

Marcus didn't buy it.

"They claim to be seeking refuge from a brutal slaver empire. Is that true? Such a fate would be horrific for any people," asked Marcus.

This seemed to outrage the Turian admiral.

"The batarians are honorable members of the Citadel Council itself! Slavery may not be a pretty thing, but it's who they are as a culture and it has saved the galaxy before. The Quarians have shown time and time again that they can't be responsible with freedom; their enslavement is for the good of the galaxy." He sneered, "Learn a little tolerance. Insulting everyone you disagree with in a diverse galaxy won't get your species far."

Tivarus calmed himself before continuing, "But I understand that your race is young. We have discovered your homeworld of Earth and what happened there was truly tragic. The council would be happy to guide your race into a new golden age among the stars."

Marcus wouldn't be distracted. He had heard more than enough false promises before to know one when he saw one.

"Whatever some quarian criminals have done doesn't mean their entire people deserve to be enslaved. I've not yet heard any good reason to give them over to your batarian friends," he responded.

The Turian sensed he wasn't going to get much out of this human.

"Whatever your opinions are, this isn't a human affair. We know how to handle our own internal problems better than you. Just let us take the quarians back. They'll face justice and formal diplomatic talks can begin between our peoples," offered Tivarus.

"Admiral Tivarus, that's not possible. It's against our laws to hand people over to slavers. Slavery itself is also highly illegal. Seeing as you're trying to enslave the quarian people, I'll have to ask your forces to leave Terran space before we begin diplomatic talks," demanded Marcus.

"That's unacceptable, Admiral Messer. Your government is currently harboring criminals, terrorists, and escaped slaves. You still have five minutes left until the deadline is up. Choose wisely," warned the turian as he cut communications.

Marcus opened a comm channel to the President himself.

"Sir did you get all that?"

"Yes admiral, we did. The Senate seems to have made up its mind. You are to get the Quarians to safety. If the Council fleet opens fire on anyone, then it's war. Act accordingly."

Marcus had an idea. He called up Admirals Keetal'Sharra and Han'Taga. He told them his plans, and they agreed. It was time for some action.

* * *

**Pride of Palaven, Council Flagship**

On the Council side, Admiral Tivarus was thinking. It seemed these humans thought much in the same way as the asari, except more extreme. A few giant super dreadnoughts instead of more numerous amounts of smaller ships. In his eyes, it was foolish. Less ships meant less angles to attack from. His forces could easily out flank the enemy vessels.

Looking at his sensor readouts, he could see that the human vessels were very primitive in certain ways. Their hulls seemed to be made of some type of titanium armor, not the ablative armor of a proper warship. Titanium was strong, but not nearly strong enough to resist shells traveling at three percent the speed of light. Just one good shot could blow up a mass effect core or fusion reactor.

Their shields were even worse. Sensors could detect no significant mass effect signatures on the human ships' hulls. There didn't seem to be many powerful kinetic barrier emitters at all. The humans had shields strong enough to protect themselves from FTL, but not from dreadnaught caliber mass accelerators.

He also wondered why their weapon systems seemed to be spread out instead of concentrated. Length was everything for a naval mass accelerator. Many smaller guns didn't make up for not having one or two large guns. If you couldn't penetrate the enemy's armor, you're in a bad position.

It was then that he remembered something he read about earlier. I pulled up his personal files and opened the one labeled Earth. It seemed that pre-spaceflight humans fought with ocean going ships. Those didn't have spinal guns since the water's surface was 2D, not 3D. That explained it. They were using old ideas and didn't know better.

He also reasoned that if they only prepared to fight enemies with homogeneous armor, the they wouldn't have though they needed the full power of a spinal-mounted gun.

He had just enough time left to send out a short message back to Palaven command.

"This is Admiral Tivarus. My initial impression of the Humans is that they're inexperienced in space age warfare. Their ships use homogeneous titanium armor, have weak kinetic barriers, and don't have a spinal weapon. Of note is that their ships are gigantic. What they call cruisers are five kilometers in length and their dreadnought is seven. The amount of eezo used to make those monsters would be insane. I suspect the humans have found large sources of eezo somewhere. Admiral out"

Once he recorded that, he pressed send. Right after he did that, the Pride of Palaven received a comm request. It seemed like the humans had finally made their choice. Before accepting the request, he checked the time. Only 50 seconds left. These humans sure took their time considering they had over 100,000 guns pointed at them. Even more if you considered that the asari had more than two guns per cruiser.

"Hello Admiral Tivarus. The Terran Republic has decided. We won't just let you have the Quarians. However, we are willing to start a joint terran/council investigation into their crimes. Is that acceptable?" asked Admiral Messer.

Tivarus was having none of it. He wouldn't let some human interfere with the Council.

"The Quarians are our problem to deal with how we see fit. Hand them over or I will open fire!"

Admiral Messer didn't seem pleased.

"I would rather die than help a bunch of slavers! I'll protect the Quarians from you if I have to," declared the terran admiral.

Admiral Tivarus thought the human was insane. He only had 52 ships. Even krogans would think twice if they were outnumbered 1,000 to 1. Tivarus let his opinion be known.

"Human, there's no point in that. Your ships may be big, but overall my fleet out masses yours by about three to one. You don't even have spinal mass accelerators. You don't have the fire power to stop me. Opposing me only changes whether you die or live. However, if you fight us, I'll have to disable the Quarian ships and some of them would die," he reasoned.

Admiral Messer glared at him before replying.

"We'll see about that turian," the Human turned to look at something else. "Lieutenant, message the fleet. All ships, ramming speed!"

Admiral Tivarus froze. Did that crazy human just say ramming speed? He was broken out of his stupor by a nearby captain.

"Admiral, the humans dreadnoughts are moving. They're on an intercept course for our dreadnoughts and accelerating fast. We can't dodge them; they're out accelerating us!"

Tivarus looked at the holographic map. It showed exactly what the captain said. It also showed the quarians powering up their drives, but he had bigger concerns right now, like the giant superdreadnought-turned-torpedoes heading toward his fleet.

"All ships open fire on the humans! Don't let them get close!"

* * *

**TSV Iowa – Flag Bridge**

"Admiral, the hostiles are opening fire on us. Most of it isn't doing much, but their larger ships are doing a bit. Our shields are holding, but other ships aren't doing as well," reported a Captain.

"Han, Keetal, how long until the Quarians can FTL?" asked Marcus. The quarian admirals checked up on their fleets. It wasn't long before they answered.

"All ships of the civilian fleet will be out of here in one minute," reported Keetal.

"The heavy fleet will take two," replied Han.

Marcus checked the task force's status. The Iowa and the London were doing fine, but the storm of enemy fire was draining the smaller shields of his cruisers and destroyers. The frigates were doing the worst, some of them were already at 60 percent, and it had only been 40 seconds into the fight.

He quickly gave orders, "London and Iowa, divert some power from shields to weapons. Get a few ARC guns online, and take out the Deliverance plus a third of their frigates.

Soon after his order, two of Iowa's top side turrets opened fire. The London did the same. Four antimatter charges propelled eight 2,000 kilograms shells out of the turrets at 30 percent the speed of light.

Four unprepared Council dreadnoughts were hit. Three were torn apart, bursting into billions of pieces as every mass effect core and reactor onboard fueled the explosion. The fourth ship, the Destiny Deliverance itself, drifted in space. The super dreadnought was gutted but still in one piece.

Five seconds later, another two ARC shells wiped it out from existence, along with the voice of the Asari Republics, Councilor Riala. Three more dreadnoughts met the same fate.

Another five seconds passed, and another four capital ships died.

No dreadnought was fast enough to dodge the murderous fire.

Soon the Council fighters were close enough to launch attack runs. Hundreds of thousands of disrupter torpedoes flew towards the 52 terran ships. To the horror of Council commanders, instead of passing through kinetic barriers the torpedoes slammed into dark matter shields.

They never managed to detonate on the hull to take out kinetic barrier emitters that the terrans didn't even have.

Some dreadnought commanders prayed for the onslaught to end. It seemed their prayers where answered when the Terran battlecruisers finally stopped firing.

However, there wasn't much celebration. The tactical displays showed 51 of their dreadnoughts gone. Only 112 capital ships remained. It was already the costliest battle the Council had ever suffered since the Krogan Rebellions.

And there were still 52 enemy ships trying to ram their dreadnoughts.

For the next minute, the Council fleet tried desperately to stop the Terran charge. Some frigates and cruisers even tried to ram the enemy first, but each attempt only let the Council experience more Terran weapons, this time of the closer range variety.

Ships would have kinetic barriers drained by railgun fire. Then their hulls would melt under plasma cannon barrages. Spaced sailors would become a common sight. Some of them were already dead; others weren't so lucky.

Finally, the Terran frigates' shields started breaking. But at that point, the agile frigates were too close for the dreadnoughts to properly track. Any hit was only a glancing blow. As for the Council fleet's cruiser fire, the Terran vessels' titanium macro armor was more than enough to defeat it.

Projection showed that in just another two minutes the Terran ships would reach their targets. Most dreadnought captains prepared to FTL out; a minority wished to take the humans vessels with them and charged forward themselves.

It was also at this time that the last of the quarian ships safety jumped to FTL, heading farther into Terran space.

That was the big news Rear Admiral Marcus Messer was waiting for. Seconds later, the terran ships all received the same order.

"This is admiral Messer; all ships break off! I repeat, all ships breakoff!" shouted Marcus

As soon as those words were spoken, all 52 Terran ships broken off from their charge and warped out of the battle zone.

Just as suddenly as it began, the battle was over, for now.

* * *

Back on the Iowa's bridge, the rear admiral was checking up on his task force.

"Stations, report. What's the status of our ships?" asked Marcus

"The cruisers and destroyers are doing fine; their shields never went down. As soon as they recharge, they'll be fully combat ready. The frigates, however, took minor damage. Most of them are reporting heavy damage to their sensor networks and dents in their armor," reported a nearby commander.

"Tell the frigates to head back to Bastion for repairs," Marcus ordered. A moment later, half the frigates of task force Iowa where returning to their base.

Captain Gears from navigation was next to speak,

"The emergency jump has somewhat scattered our ships, not by much though. The rest of the task force started to head back here as soon as Commodore Pike ordered them to. All 103 of our task force's ships will be here in five minutes"

Communications was next to report

"We've received word from Admiral Lee. The rest of our battlegroup is going to maintain their patrols. Instead, our reinforcements are going to be all ships of battlegroups Medusa and Cyclops. They'll be here in ten minutes. Also, Admiral Lee has requested that we stay nearby in case you're needed as ambassador," informed Captain Elliot.

That was good news. With two entire terran battlegroups, each having a thousand warships, the rest of this battle would be won easily. However, that also meant that Marcus would be out ranked; battlegroups were led by vice admirals. Since he was just a rear admiral, it seemed this battle was out of his hands.

Until those ships arrived, there was just one more thing to do.

"Elliot, open a comm link to the London and get Pike on the line." Soon after giving that order, he was talking to his XO.

"Admiral, that was one hell of a move you pulled off," Hannah greeted.

"Thanks Hanna. We're not done yet though, so get ready to move out; I've got a mission for you," Marcus said as he considered his next move. "After what we just did, the Reapers are probably going to know about us soon. I need you to head to the Perseus Veil and kill Nazara, or at the very least prevent him from releasing the Heretic Geth virus."

The commodore was surprised.

"What about you sir? You're the commanding officer."

"I'm needed here since I'm the Terran ambassador. You'll be fine Hannah; it's just one Harvester Reaper."

"Yes sir," replied the commodore.

Ten minutes later and task force Iowa, minus the damaged frigates and the Iowa herself, was on its way to Geth space.

This was also when the reinforcements arrived. He opened a comm channel and contacted the two battlegroups.

"Admiral Messer, what's the situation?" asked an older man with grey hair.

"Admiral Kaga, the enemy has lost a cruiser and 50 frigates, what they consider dreadnaughts, and are probably very shocked. The Quarians made a full retreat from the battle zone with no casualties. We have also confirmed the data given to us; council ships are as weak as we've been led to believe. Interestingly, my ships detected no form of FTL scanners from the enemy. I'm not sure they don't have them or just didn't use them," reported Marcus.

"Good job, Messer. I'll be interested in the after action report for this battle and find out how you managed to get every quarian out alive," replied Kaga.

The other vice admiral was younger than Admiral Kaga but still much older than Marcus. He didn't say anything. It seemed Kaga was taking lead; he was probably the one in charge

Admiral Kaga interrupted his thoughts, "Well it seems it's time for me to take my turn against this Council fleet. See you later Messer." With that, both vice admirals left the channel and prepared for battle.

* * *

**Pride of Palaven – Bridge**

Admiral Gaius Tivarus wasn't having a good day. He had only now been able to restore order to his fleet, which was down 51 dreadnoughts, and he still didn't really know what had happened. Now that things had calmed down a bit, maybe he could find out.

"Report! What were those humans firing at us? Also how did they manage to make kinetic barriers that don't use emitters and can block disruptor torpedoes?"

"Sir, scans show that they their shields aren't mass effect based. We detected dark energy, but no mass effect fields. As for their guns, we aren't sure. Whatever it was, it wasn't a mass accelerator. All we know is that it's a kinetic weapon. As far their close range fire, it seems to be a combination of railguns and some plasma thrower type weapon," answered a lieutenant.

"Admiral, we just got a message from the salarians. It seems the Terran ships don't even use regular FTL. They detected no where near enough mass effect field strength when the enemy jumped out," reported another lieutenant.

Admiral Tivarus considered his options. The humans were much more advanced than anyone had estimated. He could pull back to council space or try to capture some intel from the nearby planet. Sensors showed it had a few outposts on it. Getting anymore information on these mysterious terrans would be very good, but there was risk to it. He didn't know when the terrans would return or if they had more ammunition for that devastating kinetic weapon of theirs. He didn't want to land a ground force only to abandon it.

He was taken out of his thoughts by a captain.

"Admiral, a bunch of new contacts just showed up. By the spirits, over a thousand terran ships just jumped in!"

"What?!" yelled Tivarus.

He didn't have long to react. Before he could say anything else, friendly ships started blinking out of existence by the thousands on his tactical display. The enemy had opened fire.

"All ships, retreat. I repeat, all ships retreat!" he ordered.

Seconds after that, the Council fleet began a half retreat half rout. Turian ships managed to maintain some form of organization as they jumped to FTL, however the other races weren't as well disciplined.

For those ships, order broke down. Some commanders left in a panic, not making sure the rest of their unit followed them. Others froze, overcome with confusion. Some ships tried to return fire before jumping while others stuck around to collect their fighters.

Soon, every Council ship was either heading back through the mass relay or destroyed.

With the battle over, the Terrans started to review , while the shattered remains of the Council fleet retreated to their home ports. Admiral Tivarus himself had nearly died, his ship jumping to FTL just half a second before the white hot plasma of a celestial lance would have struck it. The Pride of Palaven had survived, but most of its fellow dreadnoughts didn't.

Once all the loses where tallied up, the true scale of the Council's defeat was made clear. Of the over 50,000 ships they sent, a little less than half returned.

On the terran side, only a few senor arrays and armor plates were lost.

* * *

The Council didn't know what to expect; only that they were facing a war worse than any they had seen before. They started to prepare defenses and increase ship production. Especially chaotic were the Asari Republics. The death of their councilor left a power vacuum that dozens of the most powerful matriarchs found themselves competing for.

Compared to the Council, the Terran Republic knew exactly what it would do next. By now news of first contact with aliens and the battle against the citadel forces was spreading throughout every terran city. Amongst the citizens of Terra, there was only one thing everyone could agree on; the Batarian Hegemony must be stopped. It was time for an anti-slavery campaign of a scale never seen before in human history.

A third group was also learning about and being surprised by these events. From their various agents, the Reapers slowly learned about the Battle of the Hawking System. What little they could piece together about these Terrans painted a powerful picture. They had work to do. Harbinger himself realized that this might be too much for the Harvesters alone to handle. It wasn't long before he contacted his peers in the Andromeda Galaxy, just in case he needed some real firepower. Harbinger also ordered Nazara to deploy the virus. He would need the Geth's help to tame this cycle.

All three galactic powers knew that this war had only started. It was time to see who would win and who would not.

* * *

**Author's Note:** And that was the first battle scene I've ever written. It feels nice to finally get into the war part of this story. BTW, if anyone was wondering, yes that is disrupter torpedoes work in Mass Effect canon. They destroy shields by passing through them and killing the kinetic barrier emitters underneath.


	8. Chapter 6: The Gathering Storm

**Chapter 6: The Gathering Storm**

The TSV Iowa was greeted by a magnificent sight as it reentered real space. The light of the star Hope reflected brightly off the white surface of Cryonis. Ships of every size and shape entered the system in flashes of blue light, creating a constant light show in front of the dark background of space.

Marcus and his quarian guests were in the Iowa's observation tower, taking in the view. They could see the space twinkle with sunlight glaring off the hulls of what must be thousands of ships, and that was just what could be viewed with the naked eye.

"What are all these vessels? They look different the ships of your fleet," asked Keetal.

"What you see is the might of the Terran economy. They look different because these aren't military; their civilian. We Terrans have thousands of different cultures, each with their own idea of what a good looking ship is," replied Marcus.

Marcus handed Keetal a set of binoculars, then pointed to a speck of light outside the window.

"See that one? That's a freighter designed by Clemens Engineering, an old company that prefers a classical look; it carries its cargo containers out in the open behind it." Marcus pointed to another ship, "And that one is from Neo Tokyo Cruising, a cruise line that prefers sharp lines, curves, and bright colors."

The two spent a couple more minutes ship watching before Keetal decided to ask a question,

"Why are so many civilian ships entering the system? Do your civilians fight alongside your military?"

"No, those ships here to help with logistics. This war is about freeing slaves, and that requires resources, medical personnel, and many other things. The civilians here have either been hired or volunteered for such tasks. It'll take a lot of them, since the batarians have so many slaves," answered Marcus.

Keetal took another look at the ships and the blue lights. There had to be thousands of ships appearing every minute.

"How many slaves do you plan on saving? The ships here could evacuate an entire world."

"We'll save as many as we can find. President Holden himself has promised the Senate that, 'we shall not end this war until every batarian slave has been offered freedom!' It was a very dramatic speech."

Keetal was impressed with how much resources the Terrans could muster. They either had a lot lying around, or really hated slavery.

It wasn't long before Marcus left the tower in order to prepare for what would be his only task for an entire week: diplomacy.

A quick walk and a wormhole or two were all it took for him to be back in the ship's Admiral's Office.

He looked around and saw a mess. With all the surprises of the past few days, he hadn't had a chance to organize his office since becoming an admiral. Books, data-pads, and hard drives sat around in piles while the shelves were empty.

Once he had organized the room, work could be done. He opened computer, loaded his plans, and brought up his contacts list.

Before making any calls, he noticed new messages from both the President and Admiral Davis. It seemed both were too busy to set up a call, using email instead.

As he read through Davis's messages, many things caught his attention.

Admiral Davis had ordered three things; first, a new command was being formed. The extragalactic diplomatic fleet would serve as the military's contribution to diplomatic efforts. Second, Marcus's own task force was being transferred to this EDF along with a diplomatic cruiser from the Diplomatic Corps. Joining them would be three more stealth frigates and their special forces battalions: one from the Army, one from the Marines, and one from the Tech and Research Branch. Third, Marcus himself was to be the Commanding officer.

Suddenly, Marcus was now working directly under Admiral Davis. Admiral Lee wasn't his commanding officer anymore, since task force Iowa was no longer operating as part of Battlegroup Hydra.

Next up were the emails from the President. They only contained one piece of major news.

Holden had created a new organization in the Department of Foreign Interests. The DFI's Foreign Relations Group would handle diplomacy with non-terran governments. The President had an explanation for this; the Terran Diplomatic Corps was too specialized in diplomacy between the Republic's member nations to handle foreign relations.

Marcus thought Holden just didn't like how much influence the Senate had over the TDC. Most of its diplomats were former senators and assembly members; they tended to bring over the connections they made during their tenure as legislators.

By making a new organization, the President himself would be its director for a minimum of two years before the senate could vote to declare it ready to be led by an appointed official instead of an elected one.

In order to please the Senate, not that Holden would admit to it, he had Marcus appointed as both the Foreign Relations Group's first diplomat and it's manager of the Milky Way. Marcus was now the FRG's senior diplomat and in charge of galactic diplomacy.

He would also be its head Diplomat until terran influence expanded to another galaxy. Not bad considering he wasn't even an official diplomat until two days ago. He quickly accepted the position and got to work.

His plans would have to be changed. He had a lot more to work with now. His new command and diplomatic position gave him a lot more leeway and far fewer superiors.

The first order of business was to make sure the war effort was on schedule. He had already done this earlier, but his new positions meant he had new things to check up on.

He clicked a link in the President's email, opening the new database created for the FRG. The documents there were highly classified and probably not all gotten legally. Here he could view any information or plans the Group had. As it was brand new, there wasn't much info yet, but what was there interested him.

The database had been put together by the President's people, and it seemed that Holden's info wasn't as good as Marcus's. He could see many pieces of false intel that were either lies or weren't true anymore.

The database claimed that many energy companies needed a new source of hydrogen. Marcus, however, knew that to be false. His contacts within had told him that was simply the official reason; they wanted to explore for Prothean artifacts, not hydrogen.

They didn't want Holden to know about it, since he was known for extreme caution and regulation when it came to galactic exploration. Holden claimed it might alert the reapers. His critics liked to point out his support for the colonization efforts; a far more noticeable action then searching for some artifacts.

Marcus suspected that it had something to do with Holden's connections to certain research firms. Firms that tended to get their expeditions approved of far more often than others.

There was more bad intel to be found. Various research project that had already been abandoned, the false intentions of national governments, and even some senators' spies listed as Holden's trusted sources.

Marcus would have to find time later to decide what he would fix and what he would leave in.

Next to do was to find some staff. No diplomat worked alone, after all. He sent off some messages to various legislators, businessmen, and bureaucrats who had the skills Marcus needed.

Knowing that he would most likely have to wait a day or two for the rest of the civilian vessels to arrive, and thus have some free time, he called up some friendly news stations. It was time to tell the people about his way of diplomacy. Hopefully Holden would be too busy with the senate to speak himself.

He spent some more time writing emails to different senators for any recommendations they had for his future staff. Marcus wanted to reassure them that his appointment as ambassador would be worth their effort.

He still had one last thing to do. He left for the ship's main QEC. Once there, he entered some codes and dialed a number.

"Hello, this Admiral Messer. Are you Captain Archer of the Normandy?" asked Marcus. He waited for the other man's reply. "Good, I'm transmitting new orders for Colonel Shepard. It's top secret, classification level 8. Make sure she gets it."

When doing politics and diplomacy, Marcus preferred face-to-face conversations when possible.

* * *

The next day, on the other side of the galaxy, Marcus's XO found herself less interested in politics than she was in the TSV London's main batteries.

"All ships, we've got five minutes till we exit FTL. Make sure all combat systems are in perfect order and prepare for possible combat," ordered Commodore Hannah Pike.

"Ma'am, all vessels are reporting green; we're ready," reported the comms officer.

"Good."

A few minutes later, the blue and black streaks of warp and extradimensional travel gave way to real space. Hannah could see the bright star of Tikkun right in the center of the forward camera's display.

Task force Iowa, minus the Iowa and some frigates, had finally arrived in the Perseus Veil. Somewhere between that star and her ship would be Rannoch itself.

Even more remarkable were the thousands of bright flashes going on to the left of the star. Space more closely resembled a firefly filled evening than the void it was supposed to be.

The officers from sensors explained the strange sight.

"Commodore, thousands of ships are here. We're the middle of a battle!"

"Reaper sighted! Reaper sighted! Nazara is here!" alerted another.

She ordered a destroyer screen, then looked at the battle projector. The 3D map showed a swarm of insect like ships exchanging mass accelerator fire. One side numbered around 80,000 and were rapidly dwindling. The other had three times as many ships, plus Nazara himself.

The squid like Reaper floated safely in the back as his heretic Geth allies blasted away with their four kilometer long flag ships. The alien fleets were just ten light minutes away from Task Force Iowa.

"All ships sail forwards and launch fighters," she ordered.

She turned to a Captain and asked, "Any sign that we have been detected?"

"No ma'am. Neither the enemy nor the Geth seem to have FTL sensors of any type," he replied.

That was good news. She gave one last order.

"Be aware, enemy seems to have no FTL sensor capability. Launch as many fighters as you can within the next five minutes. Cruisers are to prepare for ship based torpedo launch"

Soon, a little over 10,000 F 16 Shrike fighters had been launched and the five minutes were up.

Hannah gave more orders, "On my command fighters are to target escort craft around that capital squadron. Cruisers and destroyers will launch standard torpedoes at enemy cruisers and the London will target the Reaper."

She waited a few seconds. "Attack, attack, attack."

10,000 light torpedoes headed for the Reaper's fleet.

They were joined by 400 larger, ship launched torpedoes.

The London herself launched ten, all heading straight for Nazara.

Ten seconds after launch, all torpedoes disappeared as their simplistic warp drives activated. Soon, the lethal swarm was crossing the void of space at two to three times the speed of light.

The faster light torpedoes arrived first. They exited FTL just a second or two from their targets. They enemy ships didn't realize it was an attack, until two thousand ships were crippled or destroyed.

A second after those ships were torn apart by antimatter fueled explosions, the ship launched torpedoes arrived.

This time, Nazara himself shot down a few dozen of them. Over 300 remained, however, and soon most of the heretic capital ships were blown to bits by 500kg antimatter warheads.

Nazara himself was torn apart by two direct hits.

Hannah initiated the next phase of her plan.

"All forces tactical jump to 100,000 kilometers from the enemy."

Ships and fighters alike warped into the fight.

"All ships fire, fighters engage enemy light ships, and destroyers maintain point defense screens," she ordered.

ARC cannons and lances fired away, filling the space Infront of them with white hot plasma and metal. Taking only a second to reach their targets, no enemy ship could evade them.

Fighters flew away from the task force and drowned anything shorter than two kilometers in a flood of plasma cannon shots.

The surprised Geth ships joined the fight, no longer being suppressed by their Reaper worshiping counterparts. Human AIs and Geth quickly exchanged IFF data.

Terran missiles, rotary cannons, lasers, and particle beams targeted the newly identified hostile strike craft. The point defense grid fire alongside the F 16s made quick work of enemy fighters.

The Heretic Geth calculated their chances of victory to be far too low, and soon their ships began to jump out of the battle zone.

Unknown to them, Terran destroyers and frigates could track their mass effect signatures even at FTL speeds. A torpedo surprise awaited any Heretic ship that thought it was safe to return to subluminal speeds.

The FTL chase lasted until the destroyers and frigates returned to guard their task force. Most of them now had dozens of kills.

This left just two factions remaining in the Tikkun system.

"Comms open a line to the Geth Vessels," Hannah ordered.

It took a while, and there was no visual feed, but eventually the Geth answered.

"You appear to be human. We ask for your intentions."

"I was just here to destroyer that Reaper. Your people can initiate diplomatic contact with us if you wish," she answered.

"The Geth do not wish to take sides in an organic war. If the other organics learn about a Geth data exchange with humans, we calculate an 83 percent chance of attack. We are interested in your relationship with your AI creations, however. Exchange of data may become an option in the future. Currently the Geth are too weakened by the Old Machine," the collective voice replied.

Hannah wasn't sure how to deal with these alien AIs. They didn't have the interests of other races. One thing did stick out to her.

"You called the Reaper, 'the Old Machine.' Do you know more about the Reapers? The Terran Republic would be willing to trade for that information."

"The Old Machines are ancient entities. We do not know much, only the data a few Prothean artifacts have on the 'Reapers'" replied the Geth.

Hannah knew how important the data was. Any advantage over the Reapers was priceless. Her mission here, however, was done. Nazara was destroyed and the Reaper invasion delayed.

"Is there any way we might be able to obtain that data from you? The Reapers are a threat the entire Galaxy. We already know a bit about them; we could give you that data in return."

"You fight the Old Machines. The Old Machines have attacked Geth. Cooperation against Old Machines is acceptable. How do you wish to conduct limited data exchange?"

Hannah thought that was a very good question. She wasn't sure.

"Can you wait for my superior to get here? Rear Admiral Marcus Messer is our ambassador. He would know better than me."

"Messer Admiral. Commander of Terran forces during battle of Relay 1042. This is acceptable."

"That sounds good. I'll let him know about it, although he might take some time to get here. With the War going on, he's a busy man," informed Hannah.

"We are Geth. We can wait." It seemed they conversion had ended, for now. She couldn't really tell with these Geth. They were very different.

Hannah soon found herself heading to the QEC room and contacted the Iowa.

"Captain Rogers? Can you get Admiral Messer for me? He's needed urgently."

She waited a few minutes before she heard the Admiral's voice.

"Commodore? What's this about and did you arrive at the Perseus Veil yet?" he asked.

"It's about that sir. By the time I got here, Nazara was already fighting the Geth. We killed it and routed it's followers. When I talked to the Geth, they mentioned some Prothean data they had about the Reapers, or as they call them, the Old Machines," she informed.

She transmitted the London's battle logs along with the conversion with the Geth. She gave him some time to read before continuing, "You're needed to trade for that intel. I think we could give the Geth some of our own knowledge on the Reapers. We're both fighting them after all."

"Ugh, I see. Well I'll be there in two days. Be sure the task force is ready to appear on TV by the time I get there; I've got quite a few journalists and news crews onboard. They'll have to come with me as we've got no time to wait for them to get off board," said Marcus in an annoyed voice.

He didn't seem happy about the timing at all.

"Journalists sir? Why do you have them on the Iowa?" asked Hannah

"I'm about to give a press conference in about an hour. I thought it would be a good idea to give the people back home an idea of what we're dealing with. Also, President Holden made some new diplomatic group and made me it's head ambassador. A lot of other stuff is happening too, I'll send you a report of it," he replied.

The admiral seemed to be in a haste and ended the call, leaving Hannah to wonder just what he was up to.

To another one of Admiral Messer's subordinates, however, his plans called for more action then questions.

* * *

"Alright everyone, it's mission time," commanded Lieutenant Colonel Shepard.

She looked her soldiers in the eye and continued, "The plan's changed a bit, however. Your primary and secondary objects have switched; priority is to rescues the slaves and capture the data on their experiments. The batarians in charge are secondary. These orders come from the Admiral himself."

"Does that change the plan itself, Colonel?" asked a captain.

"No, it doesn't. We do this the same way, and hopefully we can get both objectives done. But if you can only do one, you know which to pick. Move out," she said as the door Infront of them opened, and a full company of Viper soldiers disappeared into the forest. The other company continues farther down the freshly dug tunnels.

As the 103rd Viper Battalion, 1st Company moved through the alien trees and grass, they were hidden by both the forest and the dark, moonless sky. Once they had traveled a little more than a kilometer, Shepard ordered one last equipment check.

Her own rifle was in perfect condition. The rails were aligned and tightly fit to the rifled barrel at the end. All her magazines were loaded with 120 bullets each, their heat sinks cool, and their batteries fully charged.

Shepard's sword was also battle ready. It's hilt had enough stored dark energy to last a week, and subspace field generators were aligned with the blade's edge. This sword would cut through everything short of heavy armor.

Other soldiers also found their equipment to be good and reported such.

With no issues found, the group moved on. It wasn't long before they could see their target.

The lights of the compound were bright compared to the surrounding darkness. Platoon leaders took out binoculars and observed while fire teams where sent around to counter any Batarian patrols.

Now it was time to wait. Second Company would initiate the attack.

Shepard herself was looking through her MR 55 assault rifle's scope. She could see Batarian soldiers patrolling around the building complex. Others manned what appeared to be heavy machine gun emplacements.

Their weapons were strange. Other than the machine guns, no clips or magazines of any type was used. Intel said the aliens' guns fired tiny projectiles shaved from an internal block. Such small bullets disintegrated from air resistance alone; her 5 mm bullets could hit as far as she could aim.

Her helmet's HUD highlighted Batarian soldiers and some basic data such as distance and weapon type. It was the same information the entire company had access to.

"Pick your targets and be ready to fire on my command," said Shepard over company comms. Batarians started to be highlighted as targeted until there wasn't a single enemy without a gun pointed at them.

It was a tense three minutes before a loud bang was heard coming from the research and development building. Most of the Batarians stopped to look around.

"Fire!"

Over a hundred rifles fired, none of missing due to both their shooters' targeting implants, and their targets being frozen from surprise.

"Launch Missiles!"

The company's missile detachment launched 12 missiles at the buildings. 12 large holes were blown into the walls.

"Wall is breached, go," said Shepard. All 200 soldiers ran across the now undefended clearing between the forest and the compound. As soon as they made it to the other side, Shepard and her platoon raced to the research and development building.

"First Company take the slave holding cells and send whatever you can spare to the R&D building," she ordered.

First Company's CO, Captain Gates, knew what to do. She gave orders of her own,

"First Platoon will take the building on the right, Second Platoon will take the middle, and Third will take left. Fourth platoon stays here to guard against reinforcements, while fifth goes with Shepard."

Gates's Fifth platoon quickly took up position next to Shepard.

"Lieutenant Dolson, Fifth Platoon, ma'am," said their CO as he looked at Shepard.

"I've linked up with the Major. He's taken the labs and has engaged the Batarians. We'll flank them, then go back outside," Shepard ordered.

The two officers threw some grenades through the breach before Dolson entered. Shepard and her team were right behind him. The 60 Terrans quickly spread out, looking out for both hostiles and slaves.

Shepard herself came upon what seemed to be Batarian reinforcements rushing to engage Major Kreigsman and Second Company. They wouldn't get that chance; Shepard and the squad with her opened fire, killing half the hostiles before everyone got into cover.

Some batarians hide behind bullet proof glass while others used a thick metal wall as their cover. Those behind the glass quickly realized their mistake as hypersonic 5 mm bullets shattered it, then tore through them.

Those behind the wall were left to the Terran squad's grenadiers. Explosives flew through the open door and landed on the other side of the wall. Each grenade had enough power to strip shields and disorient anyone nearby who didn't have the right neural implants.

"Attack!" yelled Shepard as soon as the grenades exploded.

Half of the squad drew swords and rushed in, while the others went in behind them with rifles in hand. The Batarians closest to the entrance had their assault rifles, along with their arm or hand, cut in half while those farther back were shot by 5 mm rounds.

The fire fight ended as there were no more Batarians left in fighting shape.

The hallway was littered with dead or wounded Batarians, while not a single Terran soldier had lost more than just shields.

"Give those four Batarians some nano-gel and take them to Fourth Platoon," said Shepard. The handless Batarians were now Shepard's prisoners. If they thought themselves lucky to not be dead, then she would soon correct the misunderstanding.

Two soldiers left to escort the prisoners/slavers back outside. The rest of the Squad kept going deeper into the facility.

What they encountered next would test the stomach of the elite Viper soldiers. Just before making it to the labs, they entered the holding cells. Here they could see the slaves unfortunate enough to be experimented on.

Some were clearly mutated. They had strange colored skin, abnormal growths, or even extra limbs. Datapads attacked to each cage detailed what exactly was done do them.

There was even an Asari who had four eyes. Apparently, she was an experiment to increase Asari attractiveness.

In another cage was a quarian who seemed especially frightened. Her body had been genetically modified respond to certain frequencies of infrasound. The datapads explained that Quarians had a higher pain tolerance than other races, making them harder to control. The infrasound would cause this Quarian extreme pain with minimal injury. This was tested many, many times.

Just as distributing were the mental effect the infrasound. It caused the mind to degrade in a similar way to a Reaper's indoctrination.

The slaves had different reactions to the heavily armed and armored Terrans. Some cowered in fear while others seemed interested. Most of them, however, were too resigned to their fate to care about a new oddity.

They seemed emotionally dead, and only their eyes told of the horrors of this facility. This was something Shepard was familiar with. It seemed these aliens' minds were very human like.

Shepard could see that investigating this place was deeply disturbing to her soldiers, so she had them move on.

"The labs are only a few rooms away. Keep going, we'll free these slaves when the building's secure," she ordered.

There were just two more doors. They could hear muffled mass accelerator fire coming from up ahead.

The next room as just as disturbing as the last. It was another cell block, only these slaves were the failed experiments. The Batarians wanted to observe them before they died, and it was clear most slaves here were in constant pain. They would need medical treatment to survive.

The soldiers spent a few minutes treating whoever they could with nano-gel. The nanobots quickly adapted the victims' genetics and started to seal wounds while also providing pain relief.

As they entered the blood stream, they spread throughout the body, collecting genetic information. Soon they would have enough to begin repairing genetic and tissue damage. The microscopic robots also provided healthy cells with the energy needed to function.

It would be enough to stabilize the slaves until they could be brought to the Battalion's medical station.

Once that was done, Shepard lead the squad into a hallway. They quickly crossed it and prepared for another fight.

They established a data link with Second Company. They could now see whatever their comrades could.

Their helmets showed outlines of the batarians on the other side of the door, who were busy shooting at Second Company's soldiers.

The wall between them was quite thin. Shepard ordered the squad to take aim. The soldiers fired, their bullets punching through. The Batarians dropped dead.

Soon, the shooting stopped, and Shepard was finally face to face with her XO, Major Jacob Kriegsman.

"Colonel, with your help we've managed to secure most of the building. Our tech specialist has hacked into the Batarians databases. We're downloading everything they have," reported the Major.

"Good. Have some of your troops begin to free the slaves and move them back to our base."

Just few minutes after giving the order, the former slaves were being led down the tunnels Second Company had dug from their base's tunnel network to the building's basement.

Shepard stayed in the research and development building, using it as her command center. With reinforcements from second company pouring in, all the other buildings were soon captured.

It took just an hour before every slave had been freed and evacuated.

Just before the site's manager could escape, he was personally captured by Captain Gates.

With all their objectives achieved, First and Second Company left the area through the basement tunnels, sealing them up as they moved.

The Hegemony's secrecy had backfired; there weren't any other batarians within 100 kilometers of the slave production facility and it's garrison. By the time batarian high command was notified and a brigade had arrived from the nearest military base, the Terrans were long gone.

But there was one thing they left behind. Once the brigade was close enough, an antimatter charge exploded wiping out everything within a 20 kilometer radius.

Under the cover of darkness, the Normandy dived into one of Khar'shan's oceans. Submarines launched from the ship and ferried the tens of thousands of rescued people to the Normandy.

Just before the light of dawn, the Normandy took off undetected and headed towards Terran space. The newly freed people onboard would give the war effort much needed knowledge in how to free slaves and the support they needed afterwards.

They would also boost support for the war effort back home. The increase in donations and volunteers would be welcomed by terran high command.

Back on Khar'shan, interrogation rooms had been set up.

Shepard looked the prisoner strapped to the table. He was Joral Bah'kath, brother of the Batarian Councilor and commander of Slave Production Factory Slaves' Rebirth. The one that was currently nothing more than dust.

"Human! Do you know who I am? I'm a Bah'kath. Harm me and my family will bring ruin to your worlds. Your people will be nothing but slaves," he threatened. It seemed he was still prideful.

Shepard would change that.

"Good to know. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Sofia Shepard of the Terran Navy's Viper command," Shepard said as she pulled out a knife.

"I want to know where your Hegemon is. You seem to be important enough to know"

She turned the blade so that Joral could see it well. It was rusty and a bit dull.

"So, where is he?" she asked with a sadistic smile.

"I'll never tell you. I'm no eyeless traitor," he replied. Joral then tried to spit in her face, but it fell short.

"What you are is a slaver. I think I'm going to like you, Joral Bah'kath," replied Shepard as she brought the knife over his face.

The guards outside the room had been around Shepard long enough to not question it when the screaming began.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** This chapter was a bit hard to write. I couldn't get the pacing of Shepard's mission quite right, but I think it ended up being good enough. If you are wondering why the Batarians don't use thermal clips, it's because those are a geth invention and the Council hasn't had a chance to fight them yet. Also, if your interested in what they look like, as of 11/19/2019 my profile image is of a F 16 Shrike fighter and a Tiger tank.


	9. Chapter 7: Learning About the Enemy

**Chapter 7: Learning About the Enemy**

"Admiral, what are your impressions of the Geth?" asked another reporter.

Marcus was getting a headache. He had lost count of how many times these reporters had asked him about the talks with the Geth. He would rather be preparing for war.

"I don't have time for any more questions. The Geth are a fine, if bland people. Now, there is still a war going on and I'm an Admiral. I have work to do," Marcus said as he left the conference room.

He was soon back in his office. The Rear Admiral wasted no time before making some calls.

"Hello, Holden speaking."

"Hey Mr. President. This is Admiral Marcus. I just finished the first round of talks with the Geth."

"Good. What exactly happened?" Holden asked.

"There wasn't much. The Geth are very robotic with little personality so the talks were simple and fast. It seems the Reapers have them spooked; trading intel on them was done quickly. We're still trying to shift through the data they gave us. A report will be given to you and the admirals within a week," Marcus reported.

"Good work Admiral."

"Thank you, sir. Another thing was agreed to. Surprisingly, the Geth do seem to value the Quarians. They've maintained the Quarian cities on Rannoch, their homeworld, for centuries, and they seem to honor the Quarians who fought and died on their side. I asked them if they would let freed Quarian slaves live on Rannoch, and they seemed happy about it."

This caught President Holden's attention. He raised his eyebrows and asked,

"That's remarkable. What does this mean for our foreign relation?"

"It means a lot, sir. The Quarian admirals onboard seemed very surprised by the whole thing and hopeful. Most Quarians have given up on Rannoch; the planet is more myth than reality in their culture. This is certainly a good first step in uniting this galaxy."

Both men knew how important that was. At this point, the news of a Reaper's death had already spread among the public and everyone was thinking about it. Galactic unity would soon mean life or death once the true war started.

"That's very good."

"Indeed, sir. One final thing, I'm looking to have Senator Page be the ambassador to the Geth. She's an AI who I know is getting a bit tired of being senator. I'm confident that she'll accept the position. I would write to her myself, but I'm busy preparing to fight and talk with the Batarians. Could you talk to her for me?"

"I can do that, Admiral. If that's all then goodbye and good work."

"Bye," Marcus said as the connection cut.

He looked at the time. He saw that soon they would join the invasion force and made his way to the flag bridge. As he entered, he saw that Admiral Han'Taga was waiting for him.

"Marcus, the conclave decided to assign me to you as part of the observation and advisory program," he informed.

"That's great Han. I'm sure we'll have a lot to discuss and learn."

The program was a new thing. Negotiated just a day ago, it was an agreement that Quarian officers would be sent as advisors for the Terran war effort. They would be able to observe and learn from a modern war, and in return they would teach Terran commanders about Council forces.

Marcus then looked at Navigation and gave the order to jump. It would be almost two days before the Iowa made it to the rendezvous point. They would arrive just in time for the invasion.

* * *

Shepard was looking over her troops. They would spend the next two days practicing for their assault. Training courses had been dug out and enemy weapons and tactics studied.

The prisoners were very useful for that sort of intel. The Vipers now had a good idea of how their opponents fought. Another thing gained was the Hegemon's location.

It seemed the Batarians thought their leader would be safe in a bunker deep underground. Little did they know, Terran tunnels were already closing in on him. The Batarians would be surrounded before the fight even began.

Shepard heard a hissing sound nearby. She looked to her left and saw a stasis pod open. Out stepped an AI officer from the Cyberwarfare detachment, judging by his uniform. His organic form body was a bit skinny. This was an AI who didn't spend much time outside the digital world.

"Ma'am, the report you ordered is ready. We've emailed it to you. It has all we know so far about batarians weapons, armor, tactics, and tech capabilities," informed the officer.

"Good work lieutenant. If that's all, your excused," Shepard said as the officer walked away.

Shepard soon called her XO. "Jacob, get the company commanders over here. I'm in the command center and just got a report on the enemy. They need to be briefed."

She only had to wait five minutes before her subordinates were before her.

"Alright everyone, after some rather fun work on the prisoners, we've gotten ourselves good intel," She handed everyone a copy of the report before continuing. "Let's start with the soldiers themselves. The batarian soldier is a weak weapons platform. They have no combat implants. That means no aim assistors, adrenaline booster, or reaction enhancers. They don't have genetic augments either. Only ones to look out for are their special forces. Those guys make up for their lack of hardware with tons of training."

She waited for everyone to finish reading. First Company's Captain spoke next.

"Shepard, what kind of soldiers from our side are these batarians equal to?"

"The common batarian army grunt isn't much. Their about as good as a fresh Terran militia recruit. Basic training with no warfighter augments. Their special forces are about as good as a fresh out of boot camp army grunt. The Batarians have less physical skill, but much more knowledge about tactics and strategy."

The Captain considered this.

"A smarter grunt. Got it."

With no other questions, Shepard moved on to weapons and armor.

"Their rifles are even worse than their soldiers. It seems the Citadel aliens have decided speed trumps all when it comes to bullets. They fire tiny grains of metal at ridiculous speed. These means that their shots burn up in the air just a kilometer after they're fired. When it comes to armor, they use kinetic barriers and composite armor. They focus more on barriers than physical armor since they don't have light weight dark matter infused materials."

After a minute, a different captain asked a question

"At what ranges do you suggest we engage them? It seems the farther out the better."

Shepard thought for a moment. She then shook her head.

"Not exactly. Long range is good, especially since they have no AI to coordinate their fire but close is fine too. Their lack of armor and lack of dedicated melee weapons means that they'll be lots of opportunities for a sword charge if you're indoors or have suppressing fire.

"Understood."

With the main points out of the way, they rest of the briefing was done by Major Jacob Kreigsman. Shepard decided to take this time to check up on her soldiers and talk with NCOs. She was almost done when her comms beeped.

"Hello, Colonel Shepard speaking."

"Ma'am, you're needed in the QEC room. The Admiral wants to speak with you."

"I'll be right there," she replied.

Shepard made her way up to the QEC. As one of the first rooms dug, it was higher up than most. The QEC itself as blinking. She pressed the connect button.

"Shepard, good to see you," said Admiral Messer.

"You too, sir."

"I'm calling for an update on your mission. How is Operation Gunboat Diplomacy going?" he asked.

"It's going great, sir. We've managed to locate the target and are surrounding his bunker. It'll just be a day before we're fully ready to capture."

"Good. The invasion's happening soon. During the chaos, you'll have the best chance to get him alive. However, you'll have to have a subordinate lead to assault. I just got a call from high command; you're needed to help coordinate the ground battle. They seemed impressed with your reports on Khar'shan's ground defenses and strategic points," he informed.

"I see. What exactly do they want me to do? I'm no general, sir."

Shepard seemed unhappy. She liked to fight, not watch troops move around from a chair. She tended to leave that to army officers.

"Systems General Osin will command planet side forces. You'll be advising him and his staff on key strategic points and help him avoid mistakes. You're the most experienced when it comes to fighting the enemy, and high command wants that experience on their side."

"Yes, sir."

"Good, Messer out," he said as the connection cut.

Shepard sighed. It seems her plans just changed.

* * *

Back on the Iowa, Marcus was also learning about his enemy. He was sitting in the main QEC room with every ship captain on the call.

"Alright everyone, it'll be just under two days of FTL before we're back in Terran space, so I believe we have some time. I'd rather not waste it, and Admiral Han'Taga here is apparently our Quarian advisor. A good time to learn from each other."

Commodore Pike's voice spoke next.

"If we're going to work together, the Quarian must know our capabilities and we must know theirs," she said.

"Correct. Admiral Taga knows the enemy best, so he'll ask questions first," directed Marcus.

The Quarian Admiral seemed surprised, but quickly thought of his first question.

"I'd like a basic understanding of what type of guns your ships use," he asked.

That was something Marcus could answer.

"Smaller ships use plasma cannons and railguns as their main weapons system. The plasma heats up and weakens armor, while the railgun rounds punch through it. Larger ships, heavy cruisers and up, use Lances and ARC guns. The Celestial lance is a beam of high velocity plasma that compresses when hitting a ship's armor. This starts a fusion reaction, producing extreme amounts of heat. The Antimatter Recoilless Cannon is a gun that uses wormholes to redirect recoil and powerful antimatter charges to propel kinetic rounds."

Han thought about this for a moment. Such weapons sounded far more powerful than Citadel ones and explained how this ship had such devastating firepower. There was still more he needed to know, however.

"What about torpedoes or missiles? And what systems do you have to counter those?"

"Our torpedoes are very different from yours," Marcus began, "they're extremely long range weapons, not short range ones. Ours don't use mass effect fields to pass through barriers, so they're far lighter and faster. Instead, we use simple antimatter warheads to deal damage. Another major difference is that our torpedoes come with very simple wardrives, making them FTL weapons."

That got Han's attention. FTL weaponry would be a game changer.

"That's quite an advantage. Citadel ships have no FTL sensors and wouldn't be able to counter such a weapon," commented Han.

"That's good to hear. You also asked about our defenses. Terran defense nets tend to consist mostly of lasers, rapid fire railguns, and missiles. Simple weapons, but effective. We also have our dark matter shields, and you already know how they work."

This was more familiar to Han. Such weapons were used by the rest of the galaxy too.

"That's all I wanted to know for now. Any questions for me?" asked Han.

"Admiral Taga, what about the council's ships? What do they fight with?" asked a Captain.

"The council uses kinetic and disrupter weapons. They rely on mass accelerators, what you would call coil guns, and disrupter torpedoes to kill ships. Anti-ship mass accelerators come in the form of spinal mounted main guns and broadside secondaries. Disruptor torpedoes are weapons that bypass kinetic barriers by increasing their mass with mass effect fields. Those fields are then used to destroy barrier emitters and ripe apart hull."

Han remembered something else, "If you want to know more, the Admiralty is releasing a report on the Citadel's militaries to your forces tomorrow."

"Thank you, Admiral."

The rest of the discussion focused on tactics and strategy. From what Marcus could tell, the Council's war doctrine seemed focused on quick battles and small skirmishes, with most of their forces defending key locations. Finishing an enemy force wasn't a big deal, since their lack of FTL sensors made chasing down a retreating force near impossible. Wars were won by the capture of strategic objectives, not the destruction of enemy forces. The losing side would then slowly waste away from lack of resources and planets or surrender.

Not much focus was put on ground forces. Han still found the Terran's separation of branches to be strange and alien. The Council had no form of defense against orbital bombardment, so any fight in the air, ground, or sea was won in orbit. A Council ground force was as much part of the navy as a Terran carrier's air group.

The Terran commanders found this to be a clean form of war, different from the civilization breaking type of fighting they were trained for.

Terran naval doctrine called for the annihilation of enemy fleets and saw naval warfare as existing in two phases: open warfare, and the asymmetrical fight. First, both sides would fight it out, chasing down retreating forces and destroying as much of them as possible before the routed foe reached the safety of a defensive position.

A terran commander would prefer to destroy the fleet protecting a planet than to capture the world itself.

Only once one side had an overwhelming advantage in forces would the asymmetrical phase begin. This is where the larger side tries to finish the war and the underground battles would commence.

Heavy amounts of resources would be spent trying to take the enemy's cities. Both its economy and its people would be tested as the larger force fights in battlefields created by their opponents.

The less powerful defender would engage in planet-side urban combat and divert resources previously used to support its navy to the political fight. The defender would use it's special forces and intelligence agencies to cause its enemy's people to turn against the war.

With the attacking side facing a far more inefficient war and their military stretched thin, civil unrest would be a major threat. Terrorism and rebellion could turn their fight into a two front war.

The Terrans' idea of war was a brutal affair. In their minds, the defensibility of subterranean cities and the size of the galaxy meant that a war of resources was simply a thing of the past. A hundred new worlds could be colonized for the price of forcefully taking one. More was at risk than just the loss of resources and land.

By the end of the day, Marcus understood what war was to each species. The Turians saw it as a matter of honor. The Batarians used it to prove their claims of supremacy. The Asari saw their military as a mere continuation of their economic might. Salarians believed it to be a test of brain over brawn: the large scale conclusion of a long running fight in the shadows.

Terrans viewed it as a matter of survival. This had been the case for a thousand years, ever since the discovery of the Reapers.

Marcus noticed the talking began to die down. It seemed the meeting was mostly over. He spoke up.

"Alright everyone, I believe our most pressing questions have been answered. As our Quarian ally said at the beginning, a full report will be given out a day from now. I expect everyone here to read it. I'll say one last thing. The Council doesn't know war like we do. They think it's about honor or resources. For us, it's survival. A fight over the right to life and liberty itself."

Marcus paused a moment to let that sink in. He continued,

"That's what this war is about. Hundreds of billions of sapient beings live enslaved on our enemy's worlds and in their ships. We've all seen the writings, pictures, and videos taken from the Batarian homeworld itself. They die and suffer at the whims of their so called 'masters.' Terra has had a rich history of freedom and it's time we shared that with the galaxy. Prepare yourselves, because in less than two days from now, we'll earn our pay and uphold our oath to be defenders of liberty for all."

He was met with applause. He could sense that his officers were in high spirits and believed in the cause. They were ready for war.

"Make sure every ship in the task force is ready to fight. Dismissed."

Marcus himself was pleased with what he had learned. An understanding of his opponent's point of view would help him both as an admiral and an ambassador. As he turned to head back to his office, his XO spoke.

"That was nice speech, Admiral."

"Well Hanna, if you made friends with as many politicians as I do, I'm sure you'd be just as good."

As he finally made it out the door, Marcus found his mind racing. Now that he knew more about his opponents, he could think of far more strategies and approaches. He had to work fast though; he only had two days to plan it out, two days before the real fighting began.

* * *

**Author's note:** This chapter was a bit shorter since there really wasn't much left to write about before the next battle. I decided to get a bit more about Terran vs Council strategy in since I find that explaining all of it during a fight or battle breaks the pacing too much. I didn't show much of the tactical side of things cause that's much easier to show later. Next chapter will have more action in it, and probably be much longer.


	10. Chapter 8: The Terran Offensive

**Chapter 8: The Terran Offensive**

The Iowa returned to real space and found itself in the middle of nowhere. This was deep space, lightyears away from the nearest planet.

It was not empty though. Marcus looked at his sensor read out and saw the 10,000 ships of the Terran First Fleet. Half a light year away, were the 40,000 troop transports of General Osin's 12 billion strong systems army.

Such forces represented the largest regular military unit the Republic had and would be enough to conquer any Batarian star system.

Just a few thousand kilometers infront of the Iowa was the pride of the first Fleet, the TSV Spirit of Liberty and her super capital squadron. The group consisted of the massive Titan itself, nine 10 kilometer long dreadnoughts, dozens of cruisers, and a screen of destroyers.

The Liberty's task force was almost as powerful as the rest of the fleet combined.

"Admiral, we're getting a call from Admiral Davis. He's on the Liberty."

"Accept it."

Soon Marcus was looking at the Older Admiral's face.

"Messer, good to see you. You made it just in time; the fleet moves out in half an hour."

Marcus gave a frown.

"That's cutting it real close. I guess talking with the Geth took longer than I thought it would. What's the plan for my task force, Admiral? I need to go planet side as soon as possible. I've got a meeting with the Hegemon," Marcus asked.

"You'll be part of the reserve line. Once the marines get a stable foothold, you can take a shuttle down to the surface."

"Got it. Good luck Admiral."

"You too," replied Davis.

Marcus considered his new task. The reserve line was easy, just stay out of gun range unless something went wrong. It wasn't a tactic Marcus himself liked to use. He preferred a more aggressive approach to battle.

Davis, on the other hand, was well known for his defensive strategies.

"Weapons, double check the torpedo launchers. Davis has us in the reserve line. Also, get our heavy fighters up. We've got half an hour before we jump," Marcus ordered.

Marcus and his staff spent the next half hour double checking everything. By the time Admiral Davis gave the order, every weapons system was online, shields were at full strength, and a swarm of F-17 Snipe strategic fighters were flying around the ship.

Unlike it's smaller cousin, the Snipe fighter had a dimensional rift generator. Linked up with it's warp drive, the two formed a standard, high speed hybrid FTL drive.

Admiral Davis's voiced filled the room again.

"All ships, prepare for fleet jump in 30 seconds."

30 seconds later, thousands of ships and over a million fighters warped through tears in space time itself. It would take only half an hour before they reached their destination.

* * *

Blue flashes filled the edge of the Harsa system as the First Fleet poured in. It would be minutes before the nearest senor could detect the light show; time Admiral Davis wouldn't waste.

Immediately all ships began to launch their F-16 fighters while the heavy fighters warped deeper into the system. Soon, they were within torpedo range the Batarian home fleet. Over 20,000 enemy vessels drifted in orbit over Khar'shan.

Half of the Terran strike force launched their torpedoes. Hundreds of thousands of warp drives sent antimatter warheads forward.

Just seconds after being warned about a possible attack, half of the home fleet were engulfed in bright flashes of light. On the surface, night turned to day, then returned to a deeper darkness as EMPs knocked out most forms of lighting.

The other half of the fleet, protected by the planet itself, quickly tried to organize itself. Before it could, however, the Terran fighters reached their position and launched their remaining torpedoes.

In just a matter of minutes, the Batarian homeworld had turned into a chaotic mess. Military commanders tired to figure out what happened, but most of their communication lines were down. With the propaganda broadcasts silenced, Batarian cities fell unusually quiet.

The sudden planet wide blackout was Lieutenant Colonel Shepard's signal. She gave the order, and major transportation hubs across the planet erupted as underground charges sent them flying into the air.

At the same time, her forces breached the Hegemon's bunker. As more and more Terran troops poured in, the Imperial guard was quickly overwhelmed.

Back in space, the Terran navy sent out it's second wave. Heavy bombers and light fighters warped into orbit around Khar'shan. Once everyone had arrived, they dived. Pointing straight towards the planet, they throttled up engines to full and rapidly deorbited.

Such a maneuver gave them tremendous speed, something that Batarian targeting sensors weren't calibrated for.

Using the 103rd Viper Battalion's data, the bombers quickly located anti-air and anti-orbit defense sites. With each carrying dozens of bunker busting missiles, an entire continent was soon cleared of threats.

A minute later, the ships of the invasion fleet arrived in orbit. Troop transports pointed their heavily armored bows towards the planet along with their spinal bombardment railguns. At just under five kilometers long, the ships could carry hundreds of thousands of soldiers and their equipment.

They spent ten long minutes pounding every large military base their sensors could detect, along with anywhere one might place a minefield.

Next, they launched assault ships. The 500 meter long vessels dove into the atmosphere. Their guns and missiles quickly dealt with any left over defenses, while the fighters took out their Batarian counterparts.

They landed in the Khar'shan countryside, were resistance was lightest. Each ship now acted as a fortress. Their side and rear doors opened, and Terran Army units poured out.

More urban regions weren't left alone. Valkyries assault transports landed Terran Marines into city outskirts or woodlands. Soon, packs of stealthy marines and their iconic walkers roamed around Khar'shan surface.

The blackout had left Batarian forces disorganized and confused. They were easy pickings for the highly trained marines.

The ground troops had another job. They searched the land for subterranean features or defenses. Once cleared, a beautiful sight entered the skies. Thousands of drop pods filled the sky with plasma as they entered the atmosphere.

They hit the ground and borrowed deep. Then the soldiers inside began to dig, just as Shepard's battalion did a week earlier. The Vipers and the regular troops would now join forces as a complex underground network was dug out.

Just one hour later, a foothold safe enough for Marcus to go planet side was gained.

* * *

The Valkyrie transport left the Iowa with a fighter escort.

Marcus could look out the window and see the beautiful green and blue planet below. He hoped the Hegemony would surrender, but he had a feeling something else was in store for the war.

He only had time to think of a basic plan before the craft landed. He really needed to find some diplomatic staff.

As he got off the Valkyrie, he saw a Major coming out of a tunnel entrance. The Man was wearing a suit of A12-V armor, standard for the Navy's Viper soldiers.

"Hello Admiral, I'm Major Jacob Kriegsman," the man greeted.

"Ah, Shepard's XO. Nice to meet you," Marcus replied.

"She couldn't find the time to greet you; the ground war's still real intense. Follow me, I'll show you to the Hegemon."

Marcus followed the major down the tunnels. After walking for a few minutes, they reach a tram station.

The ride to the Viper base took a full hour. Once there, it was a quick walk to the holding cells.

"Admiral, this is Hegemon Karm, leader of the Batarians."

Marcus looked at the Hegemon. He was light brown in color, and his face showed no emotion.

"Hello Karm. I'm Rear Admiral Marcus Messer, currently serving as ambassador for the Terran Republic," Marcus Greeted.

"Yes, Shepard told me of you. Tell me, why have you invaded my world? Brought harm to my people?" asked the Hegemon.

"We Terrans are dedicated to freedom. Your practice of slavery is unacceptable. We don't have any mission here other than to free those slaves. Once that's achieved, we'll leave."

The Batarian didn't seem satisfied with that answer.

"You really declared war for some slaves? What's the truth? No one would risk so much just for the lowest of castes. Do you realize the forces you face? Millenia of galactic civilization opposes you."

Karm took a moment to let Marcus consider those words. He continued, "Well what is it that you Terrans really want? Prestige? Or perhaps resources?"

Marcus narrowed his eyes.

"I've told you, it's the slaves. We have no need of your resources, planets, or anything you may have. The enemy I've trained to fight is far more ancient than a few thousand years. Your council doesn't scare me. And I'd like to remind you that your side attacked first," he replied.

"Hm… maybe you tell the truth. Human motives are alien to me. For now, we'll assume you really do detest slavery so much."

Marcus relaxed a bit. It seems the Hegemon wasn't too unreasonable.

"Then we can begin to talk. Our terms are simple. We will offer every slave a chance for freedom. All you need to do is free them, we'll handle the rest. Once this is done, and the slaves are free, we'll leave your worlds. Slavery of innocent beings will never again be legal."

Marcus projected a hologram from his phone. It was the schematics for a bipedal robot.

"In order to help you society adjust, we're willing to give the Hegemony advanced robotics tech. These robots can do far more than a slave," offered Marcus.

The Hegemon glared.

"Slavery is more than just a tool! You don't understand, Alien. Slaves are the lowest caste, to get rid of that tier is to break the foundation of our society. The Hegemony can't stand without slavery. The superiors must always have inferiors, or they will rebel!" he argued.

"A society based on the oppression of innocent beings must not be allowed to exist. The people of Terra call for batarian blood. Your Hegemony will either adapt or die. That is the real rule of the strong."

The Hegemon seemed shocked.

"For an admiral, you're very short sighted. The entire galaxy will suffer economic collapse if you do this. Tens of billions will die. Is that what you humans want to be known for?"

"Hundreds of billions of slaves suffer every day! I don't care if your people must die to save them. That blood is the cost of slavery, and it's time to pay up," said Marcus.

There was a moment of silence. Both people reflected on what was said.

"Hegemon, you have a simple choice. Lead your people into a new slave free age or watch us burn your society to the ground. If you force us to fight, we won't help your people adapt. They will die. Every slave my forces free is another story to feed the hatred of my people."

Marcus paused, and took a moment to breath.

"That's not a threat, but a warning. The Republic is a democracy. If the people want to annihilate the Batarian Hegemony, then no force will stop them. Not me, not our President, nor the Legislature. You must give my people an example, to show them that the Hegemony can change," warned Marcus.

There was conflict written on the Hegemon's face. He wasn't sure what to do. A minute passed without a word spoken.

"Think about it. Your very capital will soon be in Terran hands. Once we capture this planet, I'll take you to see our forces. Once you see the power our fleets, you'll make the right choice," Marcus said as he got up to leave.

Overall, he wasn't disappointed. Progress seemed to have been made. Marcus could see the Hegemon begin to consider the offer. Time and example would convince the man.

Marcus made his way to the command center, where he could see the ground battle for himself.

Someone was missing, though.

"Where's Colonel Shepard?" he asked.

"General Osin didn't need her anymore. She's out in the field."

* * *

On the surface, fighting was still intense. Most of the countryside was in Terran hands, but major cities weren't.

Tiger tanks patrolled the roads and grasslands while fighters flew overhead. The front lines had moved to the outskirts of cities.

Slowly, the Terran forces surrounded the cities. Their infantry had longer range rifles while swarms urban combat drones flew around providing surveillance of the enemy.

Still, pushing deeper into the cities was suicide, for most.

Not for a Viper, though.

"Sergeant set the charges!" ordered Shepard.

"Yes ma'am," replied the explosives expert.

"Everyone, stand back. The warehouse is supposed to be empty but keep your eyes open. The Batarians might have some troops hidden."

"Shepard, 30 seconds till breach!"

The platoon waited half a minute. The ceiling above them basted apart. The first man to go up found himself in a large warehouse. There wasn't a single enemy in sight.

The intel was right.

When the warehouse was secure, Shepard herself went up.

"Captain, what's the status on the other platoons?"

"All of them report the same. No contact, objective secured."

"Good."

After that, things calmed down. Equipment was moved from the tunnels into the warehouses.

Shepard looked at her new command center. Soldiers from the engineering detachment had set up screens, holo-displays, and comm terminals.

She then turned her attention to the map. At the center of the warehouse was a large holoprojector, currently showing the warehouses and surrounding blocks. The Vipers had found themselves in a large industrial district. The place was mostly abandoned, but a few slaves were still around.

They had been abandoned by their masters when the orbital bombardment had begun.

Shepard's scouts were finding and rescuing the slaves, along with doing some recon. The Map would be automatically updated with real time information.

"Captain, send a platoon over to check that large factory west of here," ordered Shepard as she pointed to a building three blocks away.

Shepard gave the Captain some reports. "All the rescued slaves say that place produced some sort of secret goods. The workers who came from there also act a little strange. We should look for ourselves."

"Yes ma'am."

While her subordinate dealt with that, Shepard turned her attention to the east. The front line was there.

Shepard headed over to a comm station and dialed a number.

"Colonel Shepard here, I need to speak with Captain Surland."

"Surland here," a man replied.

"Captain, take your company and move eastwards. Ten miles from your current position, you'll find a leisure district. That point represents a weak link in the Batarian defensive line. The slaves there have rebelled, and the 345th Tank Battalion is pounding every hostile building they find. Help them break through."

"Got it, Colonel. I'd like to ask for the First Company's help. As we advance through the city, the First Company could guard the main street, and prepare it for those tanks."

Shepard thought about it. She had planned for the First company to push deeper into the city. She could do a lot more with tank support, though.

"You'll have it. Good luck, Captain."

It seems it was time to move out.

"Captain Gates!" called out Shepard.

"Yes, Shepard?" she replied.

"Prepare to move out. The first company will guard the street for some tanks."

"Yes ma'am."

Just ten minutes later, Captain Gates had her troops geared up and ready. The Vipers moved out of the warehouses.

They didn't travel by road. The streets were open and unsecure. Anyone walking down one would surely be taken out by snipers.

Instead, they Terrans moved from one building to another. The industrial district had more than enough pipes and conveyors to use as cover. However, that also meant a lot of corners for Batarians to hide in.

They always used drones to scout one or two buildings ahead. That would limit the amount of surprises the soldiers faced. Such as the surprise waiting across the street.

"Halt!" yelled Captain Gates.

"What is it?" asked Shepard.

"One of the drones found something. That foundry up ahead is hostile. Batarians walking around in army issued armor."

"How many?"

"Don't know, ma'am."

Not much else was said as the Vipers prepared for a fire fight.

Everyone's map and HUD were updated. The foundry was now that next objective.

After a minute, Captain Gates started giving out orders. "Third and Fourth platoons stay here. This refinery has some good firing positions from the upper floor. Second Platoon will try to flank. Make your way that building to the north of the foundry and be quick about it. First platoon is on sword duty; we'll charge on my command."

If what those Quarians said was true, the Batarians would have a hard time dealing with these tactics.

Once everyone was in position, Gates gave the order.

"Third and Fourth, open fire!"

The soldiers of the two platoons shot at any batarian they saw. Soon, the catwalks and perimeter of the foundry were cleared of troops. The batarians that were left quickly took cover.

"Focus on the walls!"

The terran hypersonic rounds quickly turned any standard wall into swiss cheese. The only Batarians left were the ones hiding behind heavy machinery.

On the terran side, most of the soldiers were at half shields or better. The two platoons took turns shooting, give each time to recharge a little before reengaging the enemy.

Captain Gates saw an opportunity. The batarians hid taken cover, but left their flank exposed.

"Second platoon, maximum suppressive fire."

Almost every soldier of the second platoon opened fire. They had enough bullets to shoot for 20 seconds before needing to reload and cool their guns.

More than enough time to cross the street.

"First platoon, charge!"

With that order, Gates lead the first platoon with sword and pistol in hand. It wasn't more than ten seconds before the 30 Vipers were crossing crumbled walls and shot up doorways.

Back on the Terran held side, Shepard could see each of her soldiers via her HUD. Their figures were outlined in blue when they were behind walls or other concealment. She could also see any hostiles the First Platoon found; those were the red figures.

With their helmet's HUD and special forces grade aim assist implants, the Vipers could support their comrades with accurate and safe fire even as they fought in close quarters.

The combination of bullets and blade made quick work of the remaining batarian defenders.

"Good work, Captain," said Shepard as the rest of the company advanced.

"Ma'am, we've captured ten or so prisoners. Half of them are injured, but all are stable."

"Restrain them and keep them here. The building is a good defensive position; we should hold it," ordered Shepard.

Captain Gates looked at her map and understood. The Foundry was at the intersection of two major streets, while the heavy machinery and pipes made for good cover. There was no better place to stop a tank column.

"You're right. I'll have Fourth platoon and half of the missile detachment stay here."

Soon, the rest of the Company was on the move again. They met less heavy resistance than at the foundry.

After some investigating by the fourth platoon, it was discovered that those Batarians were an elite unit. Hacking into their datapads revealed their task.

They were guarding something of value. The prisoners would reveal what it was; they were too well trained to talk.

A little bit of looking around, however, uncovered that information.

"Shepard, Fourth Platoon found something," informed Gates.

"What is it?"

"The foundry was producing a special alloy. It's very strong with properties like Mass Relay alloy."

The got Shepard's full attention.

"How similar?"

"Very. It's just a simplified version. Records show it was supposed to go to various research labs before the city evacuated."

Shepard considered this. Even the Terrans didn't know how that material was made.

"Send another platoon to reinforce that position. This could be Reaper influence. Also see if you can get a stealth Valkyrie. A sample of that needs to get to the guys at Research."

After that discovery, no more surprises were encountered. It was twilight by the time the group reached the leisure district. Along the road into the city, four major tactical positions had been taken and fortified.

As she stood at the top of a ruined hotel, she could see the suburbs far away. Even farther, near the horizon, the city gave away to open grasslands.

Her helmet let her zoom in on those areas. She could now clearly see terran tanks patrolling the open streets or holding position in open ground.

Small groups of infantry moved from house to house, slowly pushing into the city.

Any particularly well defended houses would be blasted apart by a tank.

The problem was that it all happened at a snail's pace.

Her comm ringed.

"Shepard here."

"This is Surland. We are in position and ready to attack," he reported.

"Good. You are cleared to attack. First Company has secured the 12th street from here to five miles in."

"I'll tell the tank commander that. Surland out."

Shepard changed her view to only her battalion.

Zooming in on Surland's position, she could see his soldiers moving out.

The Second Company was arranged into three groups. A center force of one platoon plus most of its missile men, and two platoons on each flank.

The flanks advanced first. They spread out into smaller units and quickly surrounded the main batarian position.

Without any heavy machine gun positions to defend, Surland's forces had much more mobility. He used that advantage to herd the enemy forces.

Faced with the lightning fast Terran attacks, the batarians grouped up around their machine guns and cannon turrets. No one wanted to be alone when the Terrans attacked next.

However, this only made them a larger target. Distracted by the Viper harassment and the Terran heavy tanks Infront of them, they didn't notice the center force.

Surland's center moved into range and launched their missiles.

The explosions dealt great damage to the concentrated batarian forces. They were surprised and now lacked much cover.

All three of the second company's groups moved in. The dazed and confused enemy was easy to deal with.

Soon, the opportunity was noticed by other friendly forced. The Tiger tanks quickly moved in, mopping up the remaining hostiles.

"Shepard, this is Surland."

"Yes, Captain?"

"We've just taken the position. Tanks of the 345th are racing into the city."

"Great work, Surland. Reports are coming in across this entire front. General Burgendor intends to flood his entire corps through this breach. Other commanders are getting the same idea. This city will be captured within a day!" informed Shepard.

The Vipers had time to celebrate. They spent the rest of the day marching back to their warehouse base. Spirits were high as Terran troops swarmed across a major batarian city. Without proper communications, the batarian defenders didn't even realize what had happened before they were encircled and captured.

Such a victory would be the first of many for the Terran forces on Khar'shan. By the end of the week, total strategic control would be achieved, and Troops could be shipped out to reinforced battles on other Batarian worlds.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Ground battles took a while for me to get use to writing. TBH, it didn't turn out a great as I had hoped, but it was still better than I feared. Hopefully next time I'll do better. Next chapter will focus more on the political and diplomatic side of things. I think a little break from military would do well. It'll also start to tie Marcus's and Shepard's stories together.

At over 300 favs, this story has done much better than I expected. Thanks for that, everyone! I really expected to do much worse considering it's my first story.


	11. Chapter 9: Planning

**Chapter 9: War's End**

"Hegemon Karm, do you understand your situation?" asked Marcus.

"I trust my generals. They have told me of your victory, and I know they were truthful," replied the Hegemon.

It had been over two weeks since Khar'shan fell to Terran forces. Marcus once again found himself staring down the Batarian Hegemon.

"I hope you remember my peace deal. Losing this war doesn't have to be the end of your government, and the terms can be negotiated. Humanity isn't unreasonable."

The Hegemon narrowed his eyes and leaned back in his large metal chair.

"Without slaves, it'll be the end of our culture. That is far worse," he argued.

"Your culture is strong enough to adapt. No one is asking for instant change. There will be a process, and what comes out of it could be stronger. You can still lead your people to greatness."

The Hegemon sighed.

"Fine. I don't have many options. Let's negotiate."

By the end of the day, a peace deal was signed. The terms were simple.

The Terran Republic would provide enough automated manufacturing and robots to replace the Hegemony's slaves. The Terrans would also assist the Hegemony until a fully Batarian economy could be reached.

When it came to military forces, the Republic had six months to pull all forces out of Batarian territory. Afterwards, only forces with the Hegemon's permission may stay.

Due to the cultural and political shock likely to follow, for the next decade the Hegemon would have the right to call up to 25 terran advisors in order to help him rule and govern. These experts would be provided by the Terran Republic free of charge.

On the Batarian side, slavery would be banned. No innocent person who fell under the Hegemony's jurisdiction would be forced to work for a certain person or organization. Slaves would be freed one planet at a time, until the entire Hegemony was free. Every year, terran inspectors would be allowed to make sure this was followed.

This transition from slavery to automation was to happen within ten years. After that, every slave would be free no matter the consequences.

The Hegemon did give one last warning to Marcus, though.

"Not every planet will accept this. Some may break away and leave the Hegemony. This would be a perfect opportunity for rebellion," warned the batarian.

"Don't worry. Any slaver rebellion would be declared a criminal group of the highest order and dealt with by terran forces. I'll make sure of it."

Such 'rebels' were just more victims for Shepard, thought Marcus.

* * *

"Shepard, the Admiral's calling."

"Got it." Shepard replied as she headed to the comms room. It was just a day after Admiral Messer's peace agreement was signed, and things were beginning to relax. Fighting was still intense on other worlds, especially the Hegemony's frontier, but most enemy forces on Khar'shan had surrendered.

"Admiral, nice job with the Hegemon."

"Thanks, Shepard. I've got a new mission for you. I need you to take a few platoons and take a black ops facility. Intel has gotten a location for where Reaper like tech, including that alloy you found, is coming from," Informed Messer.

A holographic map materialized in front of Shepard. It was of an asteroid about a few dozen kilometers wide.

"Is that the site?" Shepard asked.

"Yes. It's on the outskirts of the Harsa system. I've already transmitted the coordinates to the Normandy. You can expect lots of Batarian elite troops, the site is run by the Hegemony's intel agency and some private forces. Intel thinks it's a research lab."

"Sounds doable. Their so called 'Shadows' operatives haven't put up much of a fight so far. About as good a green Terran soldier. Bet I could kill a dozen of them myself," boasted Shepard.

The Admiral shook his head. He brought up another holoprojection, this time of a heavily armored Batarian. Most notable was the analysis below it, and the stats listed to the sides.

"What's this?" asked Shepard.

Another holoprojection, this time of an older Batarian who had a few scars on his face.

"This man is the Batarian Councilor, Karm Bah'kath. The armored man is what we believe his private forces to be."

"Bah'kath? I remember that name. I think I've interrogated a Bah'kath." Shepard smiled fondly at that memory.

"After Intel took him from you, he was interrogated some more. After what you did, he didn't last a day before spilling. It's from him we learned about his family's honor guard."

Admiral Messer's face looked grim.

"That honor guard is guarding the lab. These guys are expected to be your hardest challenge. They've got Reaper tech. A full report will be sent a few hours from now, but so far, we've got a form of indoctrination, biological armor, and redundant organs. They got super strength and enhanced vision."

This made Shepard stop for a second. Reaper tech was something every Terran soldier trained for, but there was still little known about it. The prothean beacon from Mars wasn't heavy on military intel, and what it told of was mostly rumor.

"I see. That's a lot of good intel sitting in that lab. Send everything you know about it, and I'll probably be about to take it in a week," informed Shepard.

The Admiral didn't seem pleased.

"Shepard, we don't have a week. Even with the Normandy's communications jamming, estimates say that by three days from now that lab will be spooked enough to start destroying what they have."

"Admiral, if what that base in Terran hands by the day after tomorrow, I'll need more than just a company."

"What do you need, then?"

Shepard thought about it. Currently, she only had the Normandy and her battalion.

"I'll need a destroyer and a few more frigates for naval support. It's guns can takeout any heavy resistance. The asteroid's big, so I'll need my entire battalion to deal with it. Since were dealing with a lot of unknowns, I'd like a Marine company or two and another cyberwarfare detachment," requested Shepard.

Admiral Messer seemed surprised.

"I'll trust you with grounds ops. I can get you all that, but you might have to wait a day on the marines. I think I have a few generals I can get in contact with."

"Sounds good. I only need the marines to cause some chaos, so any infantry company will do."

"I see. Good luck, Colonel. Messer out."

Shepard stayed at the comms station for a moment before leaving.

She spent the next few hours planning, then called all company commanders to her command center. By the end of the day, the entire 21st viper battalion would be back on the Normandy and up in interplanetary space.

* * *

While Shepard prepared, Marcus had his own business to do. As soon as his call with her ended, he contacted the President's residence, the Palace of the Bridge. A grand building built on the historic site of the TSV Exodus's bridge, it was the seat of Terran executive power.

"Hello, President's office speaking."

"Ma'am, this is Admiral Marcus Messer. I'm looking for President Holden. Diplomatic and military matters," replied Marcus.

"Right away, sir."

Marcus waited a minute or two before he heard the President's voice.

"Admiral, good to see you. Is everything alright?"

"Things are great here on Khar'shan. Most of the Batarians in this system are loyal to the Hegemon. However, I've got reports that planets farther out from the core are following their Councilor. The fighting there is still heavy," reported Marcus.

The President frowned.

"I need this war to be over soon, Admiral. People here are getting worried about the Reapers, and anti-slavery sentiments only go so far," cautioned Holden.

"Don't worry, sir. This war is ending soon, and even now we're countering the Reaper threat. I've talked with both General Osin and Admiral Davis, and we've got a plan."

"What plan?"

Marcus smiled.

"I wanted to schedule a meeting. All the system generals and fleet admirals plus my own diplomatic staff. In five days from now, we believe things will have calmed down enough to scrape together a real show of force. We can take the Citadel itself."

That surprised Holden. He paused for a moment.

"The Citadel? That would be game changing. I've got some time the day after tomorrow."

"Why not tomorrow?" questioned Marcus.

"I've got meetings with senators and assembly members from first light till night. Admiral, you can't complain about that; you're the one who stirred them up after all. All I ever hear nowadays is slaver this and slaver that!" complained Holden.

"I see. Well I can't say Osin and Davis will be happy about that, but we can do the Day after tomorrow. I might have to leave early though. I've got a mission set up that has to do with possible intel on the Reapers."

That too, shocked Holden.

"Wow, you're really finding a lot about Reapers. Good to hear. If there's nothing else, I'll be off. I've got other dealings to attend to."

"See you, Mr. President."

Marcus leaned back a bit. His schedule just tightened up a bit, but it was still doable. His briefing will have to be shortened, but Davis was competent. The fleet admiral could get the job done.

Once Marcus thought about his plan a bit more, he made his way back to his office. The place was as disorganized as ever, but everything was still easy for Marcus to find.

Soon he found himself some lists, status reports, and diagrams and started planning for the battles ahead. In front of him was everything from battle reports to ship designs. It reminded Marcus of a jigsaw puzzle.

First thing to do was Shepard's assault on the base. The tactics of it weren't his expertise; he was an admiral, not a general. However, no matter how it went, valuable intel would be gained.

Marcus made a list of his Intel Branch contacts. The recommendations he got as an admiral were fine, but he trusted his own contacts more than High Command's. He also made a note to ask Shepard for some names.

Next up was the meeting with the President and High Command. Since both were happening on the same day, this would need to be short. Admiral Davis could talk about the Citadel defense fleet while General Osin dealt with Citadel Security and any garrison forces.

Marcus knew that only he would be able to talk about the diplomatic efforts, so best to focus on that. Most important was to stress the importance of Presidium, where the Citadel high class lived and home of galactic diplomacy. Another vital asset was the Council itself. Capturing them likely meant the end of the war.

While intel from Khar'shan, the Quarians, the Geth, and the Remains of Turian ships had painted a clear picture of Councilors Maerus, Arterius, and Bah'kath, it was the Asari that had Marcus worried.

All reports indicated that Councilor Riala is dead. Killed During Marcus's own attack on their fleet. Maybe shooting that big cruiser like ship wasn't such a good idea after all. Even the best Terran AI special operations operatives couldn't pinpoint who exactly would replace her.

Matriarchs across the Asari Republics were all looking to take the seat. The Councilor's sudden and unexpected death had created a political gold rush on Thessia.

With no official species wide leaders or politicians on their home world, every Matriarch not tied up with citadel politics and with any power to her name was flocking to Thessia. They hoped to at the very least gain favor with the next councilor, if not become her.

With the countless number of Asari, Intel had no way of determining who would win. The only one unique was a secretive information broker from the Terminus Systems. Her network was one of the best in Milky Way Galaxy, but not much else was known about it.

The only thing concrete about this mystery Asari was her alias, the Oracle of Omega.

Marcus chucked to himself.

Many Generals and Admirals would be surprised and humbled by an Asari who could hid from the Terran Intelligence Branch. He had to put a lot of pressure on the TIB just to get them to admit that they knew nothing.

It would take him the rest of the day to organize all of that into one relatively short briefing. Once he did, however, Marcus went to bed happy. He was satisfied with both the briefing and the plan.

* * *

**Intergalactic Space – Reaper Communication Outpost**

Harbinger, Master of the Cycle, Guardian of the Harvest, and many other titles lost to time, wasn't having a good day. As he drifted around the ancient comm buoy, he wondered where Nazara was.

The Vanguard Reaper was supposed to have checked in by now. A week was more than enough time to take control of the Geth. It wasn't possible for a reaper to be disobedient to it's superiors, so what happened?

The comm buoy was working fine. Nazara simply wasn't answering.

Something must have happened with the Geth.

It took only a split second to make his next decision.

Without Nazara and his resources, Harbinger's own pawns would have to take over the watch, at least until the missing reaper was found.

Harbinger established a link to a solitary base within the Milky Way. Insect Hive like cruisers drifted lifelessly around it, while minimal activity was going on within.

That would soon change.

"ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** This chapter was a bit short since all the military stuff is next chapter. I also have a poll about this story's world building on my profile page. It's open until May 2020, and I would really appreciate it if people voted. I hope you guys enjoy the story.


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